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THE PUHIPUHI KAURI FOREST, 61 
that no more than one-third of the whole block was covered with Kauri, 
some of it not very densely. Thus the area of actual Kauri forest in 
the Puhipuhi State Forest was 17,000 + 3 = 5,667 acres.” 
Mr. H. P. Kavanagh, who was the Government Timber Inspector at 
that time, tells me he knows of no one better qualified to give an opinion 
on the matter than Mr. F. Mander. His own opinion is that ‘‘ the area 
of good continuous milling-bush represented about one-third of the 
reserve,”’ 
The Original ‘‘ Stand’”’ of Timber.—¥rom the descriptions given me 
by those who have seen the original Puhipuhi Forest, and from 
an unburnt fragment that I have seen, it may be judged that its 
stand of timber averaged not less than 10,000 c. ft. q.g. per 
acre. This is not a very high figure amongst forest stands. The 
Waipoua sample area (‘‘ Waipoua Kauri Forest,” p. 59) had a 
stand of sawable timber (quarter-girth measurement) amounting to 
5.559 c, ft., and this was about half a first-rate well-stocked Kauri forest. 
Taking exact European figures (but as an indication only, for it is com- 
paring a cultivated forest with a wild forest), Spruce and Silver-fir in 
Europe, which as far as we know at present have a rate of growth slower 
than Kauri, have an average stand in medium-quality forest of 11,350 
c. ft. at 120 years of age, or 9,080 c. ft. q.g. The average age of the 
Puhipuhi Forest trees was at least 200 years, so that their corresponding 
stand should be about 18,000 c. ft. q.g. Thus for a particularly well- 
stocked wild forest over such a comparatively small area as 5,667 acres 
we may safely take 10,000 c. ft. quarter-girth measurement as the 
timber-stand. Kirk quotes 70,000 sup. ft. of sawn timber as a maxi- 
mum stand for small areas of Kauri. He says, ‘‘ Patches of this are 
not uncommon.’’ 70,000 sup. ft. of sawn timber would represent some 
12,000 c. ft. in the log at quarter-yirth or squared measurement with 
the wasteful working of those days, reckoning 1 c. ft. to yield 5 or 
6 sup. ft. Now, Puhipuhi is described as a ‘‘ nearly continuous ” 
Kauri area, the trees looking in places like a gigantic string of candles, 
so close did they stand. Therefore, when we take 10,000 c. ft. q.g. I 
think we may rest assured that this is well within the limits of the 
former stand of Kauri timber at Puhipuhi. 
A stand of 10,000 c. ft. q.g. may be analysed in another way. We 
may compare it with the maximum stands of timber actually milled in 
New Zealand. The maximum stand of millable timber in New Zealand 
bush is quoted by the Lands Department at 50,000 sup. ft. (*‘ Forestry 
in New Zealand,’’ 1909, p. 13). This figure is equivalent to 8.335 c. ft. 
q.g. in the log. Thus the 10,000 c. ft. assumed here for Puhipuhi, 
as good a Kauri forest as ever existed, is not one-fifth more than the 
maximum stand actually milled over various small areas in New Zealand. 
There can be no reasonable doubt that the original stand of Kauri 
timber at Puhipuhi averaged not less than 10,000 c, ft. per acre. 
Totara.—There was a little Totara in the Puhipuhi Forest. No ac- 
count was taken of the minor timbers. After the 188] and 1887 fires, 
when the remaining large timber was measured up and sold. against 
130 million sup. ft. of Kauri, 34 million sup. ft. of Totara was found, 
the average size of the Totara trees being 970 sup. ft. The Totara trees, 
though comparatively small in these northern forests, are reputed to 
furnish timber of superior quality. 
Timber measured up and sold after the Fires—When the scorched 
and partially burnt timber was measured up for sale in 1889 after the 
fires in 1881 and 1887 the official records show totals of 129 million sup. ft. 
