BEECH FOREST. 111 
chief virtue of Totara. its antiseptic essential oil, has come to be reckoned 
a drawback in New Zealand. The woodwork of houses in New Zealand, 
in spite of the offensiveness of paint to the artistic sense, is still mostly 
painted, instead of being wood-oiled; and the natural oil of Totara 
makes it difficult to paint Totara wood without some preparation. 
The sterling qualities of Totara are seen in the houses built of it 
forty or fifty years ago, and with the timbers still quite sound. As a 
fancy wood, waved and mottled Totara is of a wonderful beauty and 
depth of grain, and this fancy wood seems more easily procurable than 
Kauri timber of the same class. 
Though Totara has not succeeded in capturing the Australian market 
like Kauri, there could he little doubt of its doing so in the future, 
for three reasons—(1) The coming timber scarcity, especially of timbers 
in the class of durable softwoods; (2) the better Totara timber that will 
come from cultivated forest; (3) the much more economical working 
from accessible, well-roaded, cultivated forests, and so a lessened price 
in future. Timbermen have assured me that in the great forests of 
Totara still remaining in the middle of the North Island there are 
Totara trees that in growth and stature are the equals of all but the 
largest Kauri trees. Black-pine, though relatively scarce and less durable 
than Totara, is of importance. 
Rimu, the Red-pine of the South, the national timber of New Zealand, 
occurring throughout the length and breadth of the Dominion, is too 
well known to discuss here, When creosoted it furnished a fair railway- 
sleeper, though the penetration of the creosote was not quite the best, 
and the wood was too soft for heavy traffic. It is second only to the 
Kauri and Totara in economic importance, while it is more widely and 
evenly distributed. It will flourish on poor soil, as on the West Coast, 
where it is the largest and most abundant timber tree. In the North 
Island forests it is often held to indicate poor soil. Its rate of growth 
may average about two-thirds that of Kauri: its natural regeneration 
perhaps 80 per cent, that of Kauri and 40 per cent. that of Totara. It 
seems less able to persist under shade, and less able as a seedling to 
stand full exposure than Totara. Red-pine (Dacrydiuwm cupressinum) is 
described in Kirk’s ‘‘ Forest Flora,’’ but not in Cheeseman’s ‘ Illustra- 
tions of the New Zealand Flora.’’ 
Puriri (Vitex luwcens): Campbell-Walker thought that Puriri would 
repay expenditure ‘‘on reproductien, natural and artificial, perhaps 
better than any other indigenous tree.’’ He noticed its usefulness as a 
soil-maker in Kauri under-forest. Its habitat extends somewhat farther 
south than Kauri. Puriri-borer, however, might be worse in cultivated 
forest. 
Puriri is a somewhat cross-grained durable hardwood, and the point 
to determine is whether, allowing for its greater silvicultural value, it 
can compete with Tallow-wood and some of the first-class Australian 
Eucalypts as a producer of durable hardwood for sleepers in the north. 
BrecHes (Fagus spp.). 
The great Beech forests of New Zealand are similar to the Beech forests 
of Europe. Fagus fusca in its durability, and one or perhaps two others 
as well, are better than European Beech. New Zealand Beeches grow 
somewhat faster than the European Beech, otherwise silviculturally they 
are similar. Like the European Beech, they are of secondary value as 
timbers. Where the New Zealand Beech (Birch) forests fail is in not 
