60 THE PUHIPUHI KAURI FOREST. 
¢,—Mr. Matthews planted some 450 acres 
There is not now a stick left! Near 
it is a scrap of the original forest left by some accident unburnt. It 
is a young forest which to see is to admire : the young trees, in the pole 
stage, Totara and some Kauri, stand close and straight, like White- 
pine on a piece of swamp land—a forest so easy to work and raise to 
the highest pitch of productiveness! I must confess that as I walked 
down to the railway-station that afternoon the impression left on my 
mind was very strong—the fatuous destruction of such a magnificent 
forest and the popular notion that forestry consists 1n cutting down one 
tree and planting another! Nor has the lesson of the Puhipuhi Forest 
yet begun to be learnt (see pp. 172-187, ‘ Forest Alienation withont 
Demarcation ’’). 
The Object-lesson on the Spo 
of Totara and it failed absolutely. 
SraTisTicsS OF THE PunHIPUHI FOREST. 
One frequently comes across vague refereuces regarding the millions 
lost in forest-destruction in New Zealand. It often turns out that such 
forest was of a class that had to give way to more valuable crops, such 
as grow on the land at Taranaki. Here, howeyer, at Puhipuhi was most 
valuable forest on such poor soil that if there had been the faintest 
shadow of scientific forestry in New Zealand the forest would never have 
been destroyed. It will be useful, therefore, to examine a concrete 
case, such as this, in detail, to try and arrive at some reliable figures 
of what actually was lost when the forest went, more especially with 
reference to the present question of the Waipoua Forest. 
The Puhtpuhi Timber worked. 
In 1889 the dead and partially-burnt Kauri over the whole area, 
soine 17,000 acres, was measured up, and the records show a total of 
128,915,250 sup. ft. This was sold, and £30,687 was paid for some 
60 million sup. ft. at the rate of about Is. per 100 sup. ft, royalty. 
(Letter dated &th March, 1919, from the Commissioner of Lands, 
Auckland.) That this quantity of timber, amounting to three-quarters 
the present total estimated stand of Kauri at Waipoua, was saved out 
of the wreck of the Puhipuhi Forest says much for the careful forest 
administration at Auckland. The comparatively small quantity of the 
Sales is probably accounted for by the timber being sold on sawn 
measurement and picked over, some of it three or four times, as Kauri 
got scarce and acquired a value; while all this time there were re- 
peated forest fires. As late as only thirteen years ago the forest planta- 
tion official reported (Lands Department Report, 1905-6, p. 32), ‘‘ On 
steep rough country where Kauri logs are strewn in all directions this 
work [planting] is one of considerable expense. . . . There still 
a ael quantity of useful Kauri timber lying about the reserve 
which might be profitably utilized, This timber is fast becoming scarce 
and is consequently of : it i 5 
Ee ot rs y of more value; and it is belieyed that at the pre- 
ef rate at which it is sold it would pay to convert these previously 
ich ht logs by means of a portable sawmill.”’ 
Pete : pte nie 
nes Pre anaae of tbe original Puhipuhi Forest was about 17,000 
Renn Pp Po ton of this area well stocked with Kauri required 
o estimate, and on this point I have been greatly aided by- 
the research made by Mr : d Suey RCS ee 
y Mr. F, Mander, M.P.. wh ked timber in th 
Puhipuhy Forset + sr » MAE .. 0 worked timber in the 
Pp orest Tor many years, He obtained lan f the Lands 
Office and i Sat ae € obtained a plan from the Lan 
went into the matter. writi fi eae ink 
darth attent oer twat itl ot ting me nally, ‘‘ After thinking 
ully and discussing it with my son, I am satisfied 
