EXOTIC TREES FOR NORTHERN FORESTS. 135 
EXOTIC TREES FOR NORTHERN FORESTS. 

I wAvE been asked to mention what trees are suitable for planting at 
Waipoua and in Kauri and northern forests. The following short list* 
is therefore brought on here, though I feel it is not of great use, because 
little work can be done in forestry without a technically trained staff, 
and such a staff would soon be in the best position to state what trees 
were most suitable for this purpose. Nevertheless this list may be of 
some use, because it is the outcome of my practical experience of tree- 
planting in South Africa in the latitude and much the same climate as 
the northern forests cf New Zealand. I once entertained a New-Zealander 
in the Pere bush, near King William’s Town, South Africa. His one 
theme in our daily walks through the bush was that he was back in 
New Zealand. This was a climate resembling the upper Waipoua or 
Tutamoe forests—a climate up to 100in. rainfall, with heht frosts and 
rare shght falls of snow in winter. 
With the exception of Californian Redwood, Australian Cedar, Black- 
wood, the Tulip tree, and American Hickories, I could recommend 
the planting of few other exotic trees to compete with Kauri. In 
the under-forest various trees might be tried, but only by com- 
petent foresters with all necessary precautions. ‘The economy of nature, 
and the balance of vegetation, in so valuable an entity as a Kauri forest, 
is not to be lightly interfered with. 
In Totara and in ‘‘ mixed ’’ forest, where it was known Kauri would 
not thrive, or for planting on much of the poor northern land, especially 
under arrangement with *‘ gum-diggers ’’ to turn over the soul systematie- 
ally, the following trees, amongst others, deserve notice, viz. :— 
Insignis-pine at Waipoua shows a fair growth on poor soil at the 
Marlborough Settlement; almost a phenomenal growth on the rich soil 
of the Waimamaku Valley. The height-growth, judging from Mr. Heath’s 
trees at Marlborough, is 3 ft. to 4ft. per year. A tree near the post-office 
at Waimamaku was 3 ft. in diameter by 90 ft. high at twenty-five years. 
At Helensville, Whangarei, and Dargaville it seems to grow quite as 
vigorously as elsewhere in New Zealand. 
Other desirable trees are Cluster-pine, Loblolly-pine (Pinus taeda), 
Pinus thunbergii and Pinus densiflora of Japan, the straight-growing 
form of the common Macrocarpa Cypress, Busaco Cedar (Cupressus 
lusitanica); amongst Gums—Blackbutt (2. pilularis), the Ironbarks 
(Eucalyptus paniculata and siderophloia), Tallow-wood (#. mierocorys), 
Forest Mahogany (Fucalyptus resinifera), and H. sahgna. A good strain 
of Black-wattle is particularly wanted. It is very important that no 
more worthless Wattles be introduced, as most unfortunately has been the 
case in New Zealand with the absence of forestry in the past. 
The Hon. E. Mitchelson enumerates the following ten native trees as 
worthy of cultivation north of Auckland: Kauri, White-pine, Totara, 
Rimu, Puriri, Tanekaha, Towai, Mangeao, Kowhai, and Manoao. 


* A more extended list appears in ‘“ Forests of the South and Mid New Zealand.” 
Of the two common timber-trees planted throughout New Zealand, Insignis-pine 
appears in both lists, and Macrocarpa Cypress in the southern list only. 
