KAURI HABITAT, y 
latitudes 35 and 36; but the individual largest specimens are in the 
colder and wetter forest at the higher elevations. The two historical 
big Kauri trees of New Zealand, with their special Maori names (p. 42), 
occurred in the Tutamoe Forest on the range parallel to the Waipoua 
highlands, in forest similar to the upper limits of the Kauri forest at 
Waipoua. 
Upper Limit, Kauri Clumate.—Says Kirk, ‘‘ Kauri is a lowland tree, 
becoming rare at elevations exceeding 1,500 ft., although solitary speci- 
mens were observed on the slopes of Mount Wynyard at 2,500 ft. or 
perhaps higher.’’ (‘‘ Forest Flora,’’ p. 150.) 
The ‘‘ Manual of the New Zealand Flora’’ (Cheeseman) places the 
upper limit of Kauri at 2,000 ft. The highest group of good Kauri trees 
near Waipoua is at the Stonehenge Falls (‘‘ Waipoua Kauri Forest,’’ 
51). This is at an elevation of about 1,100 ft. above sea-level. 
100 ft. to 200 ft. above this, at the Marlborough Settlement, the rainfall 
is estimated at well over 100in. ‘There are fairly sharp frosts in winter, 
sometimes for three days together. Snow is very rare. There has been 
one fall, with 4in. of snow, in the last twenty years. There is, however, 
sleet in most winters, Thus here the elevation makes a winter climate 
similar to that of Wellington (lat. 41°) at sea-level. April, May, and 
June are the pleasantest months of the year, with bright days and com- 
paratively not much rain. August, September, and October are de- 
scribed as the worst for rain. 
The moisture conditions are similar to those on the west coast of 
the South Island, forming a climate where forestry should be the essential 
industry, and dairying and cattle its adjuncts on strips of good soil. 
At the lower levels it is warmer and drier. Here Kauri grows so well 
that ordinary farming is quite secondary, both in money returns and in 
employment, to the Kauri industry, (Vide ‘** Balance-sheet of a Normal 
Kauri Forest,’’ p. 95.) 
After heat and moisture, sun-power is the important factor in vegeta- 
tion; and here it must be noted that the Waipoua Forest is in lati- 
inde 354°, the same as Cyprus and, practically, as Malta (in the Mediter- 
ranean). These are latitudes near the summer maximum of sun-power. 
1 judge the mean temperature here at 60°, and the extreme yearly range 
within 15° F. I judge the rainfall at 80in. near the coast and 120 in, 
on the higher ground at 1,600 ft, elevation, 
These figures are near those of Auckland or the wet southern coast 
lands of South Africa. Waipoua, even near sea-level, seems cooler than 
Auckland, though it has eighty miles “‘ northing’’ from Auckland, In 
distribution the rainfall at Waipoua differs little throughout the year; and 
though, relative to temperature, it is comparatively dry in summer, years 
dry enough for ‘’ a good burn ”’ in bush-clearing occur only at intervals. 
Briefly, it is a very wet extra-tropical climate, with an all-the-year- 
round rainfall. Except for the absence of occasional hot dry winds 
—‘‘bere winds’’—it scarcely differs from the forest country in the 
extreme south of South Africa, or the lower mountain coast climate of 
New South Wales, eighty miles south of Sydney. It is just the absence 
of hot dry winds that makes the fire- -protection of the forests such an 
easy matter compared to the same work in Australia or South Africa. 
In the wet Knysna forest country of South Africa it has been found, 
after some one hundred and fifty years of trial, that, except on alluvial 
flats, the timber crop is the most valuable the country can produce, 
both as regards money returns and employment, which, as will be seen 
