REVENUE OTHER THAN TIMBER. 93 
classes 1n the felling compartments. Ultimately there will be a series of 
compartments with ages varying from one year old to 100 years old 
dotted about the forest and numbered from 1 to 100. 
Towards the end of the ‘‘ transition period ’’ there will be a quantity 
of timber amongst the secondary species that will have to be thinned 
out, and some of the Kauri timber that in size will be nearly equal to 
the ‘‘ Kauri tree of the future,’’ with 2ft. diameter and 60 ft. bole. 
The average 35 c. ft. acrim of the ‘‘ transition period ’’ will be derived 
nainly from four sources :— 
(1.) Virgin forest; some deferred regeneration fellings. 
(2.) Kauri reserves at the mid-period. (See Plate XIV.) 
(3.) Heavy thinnings towards the end of the ‘‘ transition period.’’ 
(4.) Where suitable, twenty-year crops of butter-box and packing- 
case timber planted in vacant places. 
The last item would be on waste areas falling within the forest- 
demarcation boundary, perhaps covered with Gorse, Blackberry, or 
scrub which might eventually, when cleaned with Insignis planting, go 
into Kauri, Cedar, or other valuable timber forest. Insignis-pine, on 
account of its high yield of second-rate timber, is best placed in suburban 
forests. Owing to the neglected condition of forestry in New Zealand 
there are large areas of such Crown land which, if near a demarcated 
forest, would naturally be put into it so as to be turned to account. 
REVENUE OTHER THAN TIMBER. 
In addition to the timber, there will be some considerable revenue 
from what is usually termed ‘‘ minor forest-produce.’”’ Here resin- 
tapping is nearly certain to figure largely (p. 30). It is impossible now to 
say how much Kauri resin will be tapped—almost certainly from trees 
before they are felled, and probably also from others. It 1s possible also 
that Kauri distillation will be found profitable, with charcoal or firewood 
as by-products, as all the parts of a Kauri tree, even the leaves, are 
imbued with resin (‘‘gum’’). Firewood, too, and fungus* will also 
bring in some revenue. Fungus-gathering was helpful to the settlers 
when butter was only worth a few pence a pound. It is still regularly 
collected in the northern forests, being sold at 3d. to 6d. per pound 
for export to China. I have never heard of its being eaten in New 
Zealand. It is usually found on Karaka and ‘‘ Whitewood.’’ In Japanese 
forests, trees are regularly grown to produce fungus, and the matter will 
no doubt receive attention in the future administration of New Zealand 
forests. I hope, too, that an industry killed by poor forestry and now 
extinct in New Zealand—charcoal-burning—may be revived under the 
protecting care of better forestry (‘‘ Australian Forestry,’’ Perth, 1916), 
together with the teaching of better cookery at the technical schools. 
Few things would help more to improve a somewhat inferior diet than 
the substitution of French cookery with charcoal from New Zealand 
forests in place of cookery with gas or imported American oil. 
* Fungus (Hirneola polytricha).—In 1871 this plant was first collected for exporta- 
tion to China, where it is used as an article of food, being boiled and mixed with 
bean-curd and vermicelli; it is also administered as a medicine to purify the blood. 
Its price in Hong Kong is 103d. per pound retail. In most parts of New Zealand 
Chinese merchants pay the collector 3d. per pound, or £28 per ton, for the fungus when 
dry. Fresh specimens lose four-fifths of their weight when drying. The total quantity 
exported to the end of 1876 was of the value of £18,294. During the year 1876 alone 
2,633 ewt. was exported, valued at £6,224. (Report by Campbell-Walker, Parliamentary 
Paper, 1877, p. 34.) 
