22 KAURI TIMBER. 
before the borer can get into it, the difference between ee sek and 
Kauri sap is not much for ordinary building purposes. sapwood 
quite free from borer is put into a new building it will have an average 
life of twenty-five years, which is as much as most softwoods. On the 
other hand, Kauri heartwood indoors is practically everlasting. 
Out-of-doors.—Out-ot-doors Kauri sapwood rots as quickly as ordi- 
nary white deal, while the heartwood of trees in the forest remains sound 
for an indefinite time. I have a photo of a Kauri tree standing upright 
in the Waipoua Forest, with the sapwood shed and lying in a heap of 
fragments at the base. The stem of heartwood, as it stands, suggests a 
peeled cucumber ! ; . 
~ Put to various uses out-of-doors Campbell-Walker averages Kauri 
heartwood as lasting about twenty years. He gives it double the life of 
Tasmanian Blue-gum. 
Prices —The present prices of Kauri (1916; there has been a further 
jarge rise since) in Auckland are as follows :— 
Per 100 sup, ft, 
a *C 
First class—clean heartwood _... = ee ae” OG 
Medium—clean sapwood without any pinholes ... 21 6 
Third class—with worm-holes through it... ity ao 
It will thus be seen that there is no great difference in the actual 
market value of sound heart and sound sapwood of Kauri, provided it 
is free from borer. 
What is known as rough-heart Kauri is resinous and very durable, 
‘but there is only about 10 per cent. of this in a tree. 
The average cost of getting 100 sup. ft. of Kauri to market, with 
much expensive working, was quoted eight years ago by the Kauri Timber 
Company as 12s. 5d. (Timber Commission Report, p. 565); so that, 
adding the secretary's estimate of profit to the company (1s. 7d. per 
100 ft.), all above 14s. represents the market royalty value of the Kauri 
timber—say, about 8s. 4d. This figure, it will be remembered, is for 
working in roadless undeveloped forest, where the cost of extraction is 
about three times what it would be with the forest in order. Now, &s. 4d. 
per 100 sup. ft. (= ls. per ec. ft.) is the figure that I have taken in these 
‘pages as representing nearly the present-day market royalty value of 
Kauri, . a: 
Kaurrt AS a Fancy Woop. 
One of the chief uses for Kauri has been as a furniture timber. 
This may be its only use for the next century, till the new supplies 
produced by better forestry come forward. For furniture the fieured and 
fancy-marked wood of Kauri is particularly important. Mottled Kauri 
is discussed by James Stewart, C.E., in a paper read before the Auck- 
Jand Institute. He says that it has been ascribed to a timber-disease 
and to a different variety of the Kauri, but examination shows that it 
is a peculiarity due to an abnormal growth of bark-tissue within the 
‘sapwood. The markings are often rich, and enhance the value of the 
Kauri for furniture-wood. Nearest the bark the mottlines are nearly 
sure bark, and thenceforward inwards nearly pure woody tigen, (Trans. 
| LZ. Inst.., 1874.) This peculiar mottling, due to the mixture of hark- 
tissue in the body of the woody tissue, is not confined to Kauri: it is 
‘most marked in Totara. ' oui a 
A beautiful example of well-figured Kauri is to be seen in the very 
‘cramped quarters of the forestry-room of the Lands Department, Wei- 
