SIZE OF THE LARGEST KAURI TREE. 49 
Cubie Content of “‘ Kavraru.’’—To allow (1) for bark, (2) a slight 
taper or hollowing of the bole about the middle, and (3) the chance of 
just a little of the basal bulge being measured in, I will take 20 ft. as 
the average diameter of the Tutamoe giant tree, instead of 22 ft. The 
cubage then works out as follows :— 
Full volume (7 r* x bole-length) :— 
3°14159 x 10? x 100 ft. = 31,416 c. ft., or 376,992 sup. it. 
in the log. 
Quarter-girth :— 
: 2 
Boe * 100 = 24,649 c. ft., or 295,788 sup. ft. in the log, 
For comparison I will take a log rule used in nine of the States of 
the United States of America—viz., % diameter squared x height: then 
one has (20 x §)? x 100 = 17,778 c. ft., or 213,333 sup. ft. - This gives 
sawn timber. 
In round numbers one may say that ‘‘ Kairaru,’’ if sound, carried 
4 million sup: ft. of merchantable timber in its bole and branches. 
Its gross cubic content, 31,416 c. ft., is nearly seven times the size 
of “‘ King Karri,’’ 4,500 c. ft., the record big Karri tree (Hue. diversi- 
color) of Western Australia (p. 44). 
Value of ‘* Kavrarw.’’—Present selling-rates in New Zealand are on 
quarter-girth measurement, and the market royalty ls. per c. ft. (8s. 4d. 
per 100 ft. sup.), so that the present-day royalty value of the giant tree 
would be 24,694 o. ft. q.g. at Is. = £1,235. 
There is a Greek proverb which says that any man planting a 
Cypress tree plants a dower for his granddaughter, so valuable is 
Cypress timber. Any old-time New Zealand settler rescuing a giant 
Kauri tree from the holocaust of those days would have provided a 
dowry for his granddaughter worth something near £1,000 at present-day 
prices for Kauri timber. 
Kaurt tHE Most Massive TimMper-TrREE IN THE’ WORLD. 
Various observers have compared the shafts of Kauri timber to the 
columns of a Gothic cathedral. The comparison is apt. I have seen 
most of the cathedrals of Europe, and quite recently those of Spain. 
The quality that at once arrests attention in the giant Kauri trees is their 
massiveness. It is this quality which compels comparison with the shafts 
of masonry in these old cathedrals, the grandest of man’s buildings. 
Massiveness is the pre-eminent quality of the giant Kauri trees. They 
are not yery tall trees as giant trees go, but the straight shaft of timber 
with its perpendicular lines is rarely seen in other trees. 1 know only 
one tree quite like it. That was, as mentioned, in a forest of huge 
timber on the eastern side of Mount Kenia, in equatorial Africa. This 
tree had lines as perpendicular as the New Zealand Kauri, but it was 
not above one-half or two-fifths the size of the New Zealand Kauri. 
It is doubtful if there are finer trees in any tropical forest than that 
on the Western Ghats of India. Captain Campbell-Walker was familiar 
with these. Nevertheless, on seeing the Kauri forests of New Zealand 
he wrote, ‘‘ On my first view of Kauri forest I.was much struck by the 
colossal dimensions of this noble tree.’? He had only a comparatively 
short time in the Kauri forests, and apparently the size of the largest 
Kauri tree he saw was 10 ft. diameter—about one-quarter the size of the 
record big trees. | 
Dr. Hochstetter, in his book on New Zealand, written in 1867, 
comments on the columnar appearance of the Kauri trees. He adds, 
