BEAUTIFUL KAURI. 25 
witness the millions put into the cofters of the central States of Europe 
by scientific forestry, the twenty or twenty-five millions lost yearly by 
England owing to its want of State forestry, and the six or seven millions 
paid out yearly by Italy while its forests are developing. In their 
demonstration of the sensational, and neglect of the solid, it is clear 
that the New Zealand museums have not the permanent educational 
value which their general excellence would suggest. (These remarks do 
not apply to the Wellington and Auckland museums, both of which have 
yet to be built; while to both 1 am indebted for important material 
assistance in my investigations.) 
Brautirtn KAuvrt. 
Every one knows Kauri as a useful timber—few as a beautiful one. 
Sentiment is powerful in every community—the love of the beautiful and 
what makes for beauty in the homes of a people. If Kauri specimens 
(and the Puriri that grows with it) with the colouring, depth of grain 
and sheen that I saw in Auckland lately, were well shown in every 
museuni in New Zealand they would go some way in saving the Kauri 
forests, at any rate, frem the nationai policy of indiseriminate destruc- 
tion. Figured Kauri has the property of reflecting light differently at 
different angles, the general effect being that of a half-hidden ray of 
light moving below the surface. 
Whether owing to the near exhaustion of the forest, or to the practice 
of decrying New Zealand’s most valuable natural asset, its timber,* or 
whether because there is more profit in importing than manufacturing, 
these peerless veneers are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. 
J. C. Firth, in his paper on ‘* Forest Culture,”’ read before the 
Auckland Institute in 1874, lays stress on the waste in not cutting 
across, and shipping to England for fancy timber, the crutch or point 
of insertion of the main lateral branches of Kauri, The lateral 
branches of the Kauri are huge limbs such as one sees on the Outeniqua 
Yellow-wood in South Africa, and to a less degree on old park Oaks in 
England. They represent reservoirs of twisted fancy-grain timber. 
The crutch of Kauri is cross-grained, the straight grain of the lower part of 
the tree being twisted round the knots into a great variety of wavy, trans- 
verse, and oblique lines, showing what the cabinetmakers call “figure” . . . 
Some of the more unique planks or boards might be cut into veneers not only 
for local cabinetmakers, but sent to London and elsewhere. (Trans. N.Z. 
Inst., 1874.) The timber in the great limbs of Kauri trees seems to be of finer 
erain than that inthe bole. Thus an average Kauri tree at Waipoua had ina limb 
I cut across thirty rings per one of radius; but at the base of the same tree and 
near the bark only, where they would naturally have been narrower, the rings 
averaged eighteen, Thus the wood in the limb was about twice as “‘close- 
grained,” 
Mr. Phillips Turner tells me that Kauri branch-wood, besides its use 
for furniture, has had a considerable employment for fence-posts, its 
wood being more resinous and durable in the ground than ordinary 
Kauri timber. 
There is now a handsome slab of mottled Kauri in the forest office, 
Lands Department, Wellington. Of all the timbers shown there this 
specimen holds the palm for absolute figure and colour. 
* Not many years ago a prominent New Zealand politician addressed an important 
London audience on “New Zealand and its Products.” He mentioned products that 
some New-Zealanders have never heard of, but he clean forgot the Kauri, the forests, and 
all they were producing, though at the time they were supporting more hands than any 
other industry. 



