52 LARGEST EXISTING KAURI TREES. 
largest hollow tree 22 ft. diameter and 60 ft. bole. The greatest length of 
bole he has known is 120 ft. One of the finest of the unique group of 
Kauris (Stonehenge, ‘‘ Waipoua Kauri Forest,’ p. 51) was burnt shortly 
before my visit; the big tree of the Auckland Exhibition (see p. 48) has 
since been burnt. I heard of a particularly large Kauri near Auckland 
ment by a former Governor, the 
which was purchased as a national monu 
late Lord Glasgow. It was destroyed shortly after he left! — 
That it is not intended, in an orderly British community, to allow 
a tree of world-wide interest to perish from the face of the earth is shown 
by the large expenditure on forestry—totalling well over half a million— 
and on the scenic reserves, some £90,000; but the means taken have not 
been those of other countries, and it cannot be contended that the results 
produced are the best attainable. Australia spent many wasted years 
over Forestry Boards and make-believe Forest Departments, . always 
looking back on the Old Country, where there is no State forestry, and 
forward with the crude idea that ‘‘ wool is better than wood *’ up to 
any point, Australia before the war was paying some three millions 
and a half yearly for imported timber; and Australia has lost a great 
industry. some of the best of its population, and the splendid hardwood 
market which opened up in Europe when Oak-growing became unprofit- 
able. Australia has a timber use now reduced to 23 c. ft. per head. 
against 230 c. ft. per head in America for both timber and firewood. 
It may be added that New Zealand, with its reckless forest-destruction, 
is now on the verge of a wood famine, with a timber-consumption 
reduced to 25 c. ft. per head. House-building is approaching famine 
prices; firewood has reached it; while the rise in the cost of living is 
often put down to irrelevant issues. Sheep and cattle (not required for 
milk) graze near the centres of population, while timber and firewood rot 
unutilizable on distant mountains. 
THe KaAturt TREE WILL NOT BE EXTERMINATED. 
Nevertheless there is a bright side to this sad picture of isolation, 
backwardness, and national loss. The shoe is pinching, and the people 
will not much longer tolerate being deprived of one of the prime neces- 
Saries of civilized existence—timber and firewood. When New Zealand 
does see better days, with the forestry and Forest Departments of other 
countries, there will be still left enough Kauri trees to show, in a com- 
paratively short time, what the old-time, world-famed, giant trees were 
like. For Kauri is still growing fast and strong wiehy most trees are 
in decrepitude, growing slowly and weakly. Of large trees up to 15dit 
in diameter there are a fair number left, both in Government forests a nd 
in the larger area of alienated forest, which may vet in great part be ° 
redeemed and saved to the country. Such trees as that shown ‘in the 
botanical report of Waipoua by Dr. Cockayne will be preserved, we 
may hope, with the Waipoua Forest. It is certain that once the present 
fatuous forest policy is shaken off, monumental Kauri trees will be pre- 
served religiously, as France is doing to-day with every scrap of national 
forest left to the country after the excesses of the French Revolution 
and the corrupt government of Napoleon III. And. it mav be added. 
France is doing more: before the war, each year’s Budget had an item 
of one million francs for forest redemption! — ~*~ 
Tourists alone would make it worth while to pr ; i 
trees left to New Zealand, apart from the tatetbie esos aid 
national spirit stimulated by this war, and the return of the Abecee will 
insist on the preservation of these unique and world-famed ‘monuments 
