B6 THE NORMAL KAURI FOREST. 
The first consideration is the gradual working-out of the old over- 
mature and ripe timber of the virgin forest. Just how long it will 
take to cut out this old overmature timber of the virgin forest in each 
case is a matter of public convenience. I understand that the Govern- 
ment wish to keep a certain supply of Kauri in hand. This could be 
done in properly constituted forest reserves without incurring all the 
loss mentioned at Waipoua (‘‘ Waipoua Kauri Forest, p. 27) in having a 
virgin forest earning nothing. From a silvicultural point of view, the 
slower the virgin timber is worked off the better for the age-classes in the 
forest afterwards, though as Kauri grows rapidly from age 100 to age 
160 or 180 there might be little loss during the next rotation in letting 
the requisite quantity of Kauri run on towards this age in order to 
rectify the age-classes. That will be a matter for the Forest Department 
to advise about, and the Government to decide on, 120 years hence—the 
happy time of a Kauri timber surplus. For the present I take it that 
all the old virgin-forest timber will be worked off between 10 and 30 years 
from now. I therefore take 20 years as a mean period. 
The younger portion of the Kauri trees in the virgin forest will be 
left uncut to form a Kauri reserve, as appears below. (See Plate XII.) 
When the old timber of the virgin forest has been worked through 
all that part of the forest will be restocked with young timber, and 
it will be 100 years before that young timber is fit to cut. This 
may be called the ‘‘ transition period,’’ since the forest during the whole 
of that period will be getting gradually converted from an all-aged, 
irregularly-stocked wild forest to an even-aged, fully-stocked, cultivated 
forest. 
After the 20 years allowed for the cutting-over and restocking of the 
overmature virign forest (Kauri at Waipoua, for instance), the cutting- 
over and restocking of the rest of the forest will then be taken in hand. 
The slower this is done the better for the age-classes, but the worse for 
the forest as a money-earning estate. One may perhaps allow another 
20 years for this, thus bringing one to the cutting-period of the Kauri 
reserves some 40 or 50 years hence. 
THE Mip-rotation Kauri Reserves. 
When cutting out the old virgin-forest timber there would naturally 
be left such trees as were necessary for silvicultural reasons, especially 
seed and soil-shelter, Such trees would first help to seed their own 
ground, and then be available for the seed-supplies of the Forest De- 
partment. A forester everywhere tries to keep the soil covered as far 
as may be. Further, he would consider the reservation of all the 
younger trees whose growth might be expected ta pay, or nearly 
pay, interest on their present money value. Looking at the steady rise 
in the value of Kauri, it may be anticipated that there would be many 
such trees : silviculturally, and for the age-classes, the more the better. 
For Government purposes a supply of Kauri timber that could be looked 
forward to with certainty in 40 or 50 years might be very useful—in the 
Railway Department, for instance. ; 
Cultural considerations, the state of the young Kauri or Totara iD 
each group, would determine the final early or late removal of these 
reserved trees. ; 
It is the Kauri reserves, and the thinnings towards the end of the 
hundred-year ‘‘ transition’ period, that will make up the mean yield 
a 15 c. ft. per acre per year entered in the “ Balance Statement” 
elow. 
