30 KAauRI ‘‘ GuM.’’ 
i, t i “oum’’ streaming from chips and chops in the bark 
jaan nbc seen it in the forest. On the right of the photo are some 
Kauri trees in the ‘‘ ricker ’’ or mast stage, some of the largest of these 
representing what I event; as the “‘ Kauri tree of the future.”’ [ft 
‘e as the frontispiece. 
4 een ent may honour the memory of the late Mr, Josiah 
Martin, of Auckland, for he has left records of the peerless Kauri trees 
that cannot again be seen for many, many long years—not till the 
memories of the wicked days of the past, their prodigality and waste 
(capped by the great war), have mellowed in the brighter days of restored 
forests, relieving the nation of much of the burden of the war taxes, 
Amongst Mr. Martin’s studies of Kauri trees there is no better than 
that in the Hon, Pember Reeves’s ‘‘ Long White Cloud.”’ Allowing for a 
little photographic distortion, it shows the cylindrical form of the Kauri 
as well as the remarkable photos in these pages. 
The best description in print of the New Zealand Kauri tree is that 
in Cheeseman’s “Illustrations of the New Zealand Flora ’’ (vol, 2). 
There also are beautiful drasvings by Miss Matilda Smith, of Kew, show- 
ing in detail the foliage, flowers, cones, and seed. 
KAURI ‘*-GUM.”’ 
RESIN-TAPPING OR ‘‘ GUM-BLEEDING ’’ OF KAURI. 
Generalities. 
Says T. F. Cheeseman, ‘‘In a fresh state every part of the Kauri is 
filled with a transparent turpentine, which exudes from the smallest 
wound. An injury to the bark, a broken branch, even bruised leaves, 
at once cause a copious flow of the resin.’’ (** Illustrations of the N.Z, 
Flora,” vol. 2.) This is well seen in the photo opposite (Plate V1). 
There are two kinds of Kauri “ gum *’—the ordinary fossil ‘ gum” 
and tree ‘‘gum.’’ Tree “gum’’ has a strong smell of turpentine ; 
earth “‘gum’’ has little smell of turpentine, and is usually harder. 
Ordinary Kauri “gum” burns as easily as sealing-wax, leaying a 
dark-brown unburnable residue of about one-tenth its bulk. But the 
fresh ‘‘ candle-grease ”’ gum which festoons the side of ‘‘ bled ”’ trees is 
more inflammable, carrying fire almost like a train of gunpowder. A 
form of Maori torture was to burn bits of Kauri resin on the flesh of the 
victim. Scraped with a knife Kauri «“ gum ’’ crumbles and smells like 
a hard sample of the ordinary resin of grocers’ shops used for fiddle- 
bows and fire-lighters. When rubbed it becomes magnetic like amber 
and picks up scraps of paper. It seems curious that the fossil resin is 
not called amber. It looks very like amber, and is, in fact, a sort of 
amber. It is always called « gum,’’ which is just what it is not, because, 
as they some ies bEees sums are soluble in water 3 resins not. Kauri 
_ gum” can be spun like glass into a fine flossy fibre closely resembling 
a Se cies pire the it ee It is stated that in the world's 
is used in making the best ah mitehee Sacha sc i sea 
combine peculiarly well] With line sa ribs eis carenbE ae 
systematic digging and siftine ; shiping ele Pe estimated that by 
Ssing and sifting it may hold that position for forty years 
SOA gees having seen the Zanzibar resin trees I can believe this 
