48 THE TAPERLESS KAURI. 
sides of the log, as that would be squared off. This ae 18 pint 
below the great spreading crown than near the ground, as 1s usually 
C ' luction of the taper to 
the case with big old Kauris, resulting in a ree i ' 
little or nothing. Mr. Trounson’s giant tree Boies on t 1e photo 
140 mm. in length of bole, of sa Pe taper is here 2mm. in 140, or 
. iameter in 100 ft. of length. TH: : 
ihe sivell Kank figured on mt 1914 Panama Exhibition pamphlet 
shows the form of the Kauri trunk particularly well. Omitting the small 
basal bulge the thickest part is below the crown. : 
In the New Zealand Official Year-book for 1899 1s an account of 
New Zealand forestry, and a figure of a fairly large Kauri tree, 
1b ft. 4in. in diameter and 46ft. bole. This is the same size above 
the basal bulge as below the branches. Taking the lines of the bole 
generally, there is a taper of 2 ft, diameter per 100 ft. of length. There 
is usually less. I have scaled the trunks in a collection of photos of 
big Kauri trees sent me from Auckland, Allowing a small amount for 
photographic distortion, the diameter of the boles below the bulge where 
limbs go off is practically the same as the diameter above the bulge of 
the root; but the lines of the bole do not go up quite straight—there 1s 
a slight hollowing or bending inwards at the centre of the bole. 
In the Lands Department yearly report for 1905, p. 76, is one of 
Mrs. Grace Matthews’s beautiful photos, showing a smallish Kauri tree 
9ft. diameter by some 40 ft. bole. This tree above the basal bulge is 
distinctly smaller in diameter than below the crown bulge. 
When in the Waipoua Forest I cubed some of the timbermen’s 
estimates of the quantity of sawn timber that could be got out of various 
Kauri trees, and found that their estimates corresponded pretty closely 
with ‘‘ form-factor ’’ = 1:00, 
The Hon. Pember Reeves gives a good popular description of the 
remarkable timber-producing form of the Kauri tree: ‘‘ As the British 
ox, with his short horns and cube-like form, is the result of generations 
of breeding with a single eye to meat, so that huge candelabrum the Kauri 
might be fancied to be the outcome of thousands of years of experiment 
in producing the perfection of a timber-tree. Its solid column mav 
rise 100 ft. without a branch; it is all timber—good wood. Clean, 
soft, easily worked, the saws seem to cut it like cheese.’’ (‘* The Long 
White Cloud,” p. 321.) 
TrmBeR MErASuREMENT or Kauri anp A (trant EuCALYPT, 
The two cuttings (Plate IX), taken (1) from the last number (March, 
1917) of the Australian Forest League journal (Victoria), and (2) enlarged 
from the letter-paper of an Auckland Kauri-gum merchant, show how 
the volume of Kauri timber can be easily calculated from the girth and 
length of bole, while for the Australian and Californian big trees this 
would be difficult to do on account of the irregular swollen base and 
rapid taper of the trunk. 
Cunic Conrenrs or tur Recorp Bra Kauri Tren. 
The bulk of timber in the record big tree of the Tutamoe Forest, 
called *‘ Kairaru ’’ by the Maoris, works out thus :— 
There is little or no taper. Kauri sheds its dead bark in scales, and 
the live inner bark is rarely more than 2in. thick. In old trees the heap 
of bark debris, sometimes 6 ft. or 8ft. high, called ‘‘ bukau,” gives 
little chance of much of the basal bulge, s sit j : 
. | Sa , Small as it is, : sasured 
in. The observer stands above it. ; ty SSE SSE De Pena 
