THE PUHIPUHI KAURI FOREST, 57 
and without the usual fire-protective measures, so that the advent of the 
millers brought more fires. Then silver-mines were discovered, and the 
scandalous mining-forest laws operated to hasten the destruction. There 
was a bad fire in 1881, but the burn that almost finished the forest, de- 
scribed below, occurred in 1887. In 1913, 11,900 acres of burnt forest 
was withdrawn from reservation. Old records speak of it as once the 
finest Kauri forest in New Zealand (“‘ New Zealand Index,’’ 1913). 
Says Mr. H. P. Kavanagh, writing to me recently, ‘‘ Puhipuhi was a 
compact forest, easy of access by the public roads and well situated for 
economical working : hence its Bree commercial yalue compared with 
other Kauri forests.’ 
The striking photo opposite (Plate X) of burnt Kauri logs and the 
burnt forest at Puhipuhi, by Mr. H. P. Kavanagh, is reproduced at 
p. 16 of the Lands Department, 1907, report on the timber industry. 
Other interesting photos of burnt forest and Kauri timber-working are 
given in the same publication. 
As will be seen on pages 67 and 68 I| calculate the net money loss in 
the destruction of the Puhipuhi forest at £3,972,115, taking the value of 
the virgin-forest timber at present Kauri prices. plus the capitalized 
value of future Kauri crops, less the value of the Kauri timber sold 
and of the present grass lands. 2£3,972,115 + 5,667 acres = £701 per 
acre | 
EMPLOYMENT: FORESTRY VERSUS GRASS. 
Though the forest was so good the soil was mostly poor, and naturally 
became poorer with the loss of the forest covering. On the best 
of the soil dairying is in progress, with the result, ‘trom inquiries I 
made on the spot, that 200 acres give employment to one family and 
bring in about £1 per acre yearly in butter-fat, or 10s. net after de- 
ducting about 10s. per acre as the cost of labour. (For a discussion 
of these figures see p. 113.) 
If the forest had been worked conservatively under trained foresters 
during the time that the crop of timber in the virgin forest was being 
cut, there would have been two or three times this amount of employ- 
ment—in logging and milling the timber, in roading and in organizing 
the forest against fire, and in ensuring the full regeneration of the 
forest with the maximum Kauri crop. 
Mr. F. Mander, M.P., who milled a considerable part of the Puhi- 
puhi Forest, and some others, have informed me that it contained a 
large proportion of young timber. Thus the timber returns from the 
Puhipuhi Forest. would have been continuous from the start of systematic 
working. There would have been little or no transition period. The 
forest by now would have been earning some £7 per acre per year net, 
taking the present market Kauri royalty at 10s. And Kauri timber is 
rising so rapidly in price that in a few years the Puhipuhi Forest would 
have been in the position of the normal Kauri forest and ear ning some 
£10 net per acre per year (p. 99). Full employment would then have 
been at the rate of about one man per 75 acres, as against one man per 
200 acres under dairying. 
Money Return. 
The money-yield of dairying on this poor soil, impoverished by 
destroying the forest, is now estimated, as above, to average yearly 
barely £1 per acre gross, or 10s. per acre net. The vield of the normal 
Kauri forest, allowing only £1 11s. per acre for Kauri “ gum,’’ is esti- 
