FIRE. 145 
FIRE. 
FrrE DANGER IN 4 Katri Foresvr. 
Tie general aspect of fire-protection in an organized forest is dis- 
cussed in my ‘* Australian Forestry *’ (Perth, 1916); and in a Kauri 
forest at pages 30-32 of ‘‘ Waipoua Kauri Forest.’’ It will be suffi- 
cient to remark here that though there is little danger of fire in the 
Kauri forest in its natural state and in ordinary wet years, there is real 
danger in exceptionally dry years, or when the forest is worked. 
Said Mr. E, Harding to the Forest Commission of 1913 (p. 43) :— 
The rainfal! {at Waipoua]is very high, but in such districts there occasionally 
comes a period of drought, when fires will occur and spread. There is no class of 
country more inflammable than a Kauri bush. Every credit must be giyen to 
those responsible for protecting this forest [Waipoua] in the past, but the time 
will come when a huge fire will occur with the result that, as at Pubipuhi, many 
thousand feet of most valuable timber will be lost to the Dominion, 
We may distinguish three sorts of fires in a Kauri forest—(1) Crown 
fires, (2) ground fires, (3) working refuse-fires. The last is the common 
fire in Kauri forest. Without it the fire danger is small. The Waipoua 
Forest was overrun with ‘* gum-diggers ‘’ for twenty-five years, and no 
fire worth mentioning occurred. Crown fires are described to me as being 
more common than I should have supposed. The ordinary forest fire in 
India and in South Africa is the ground fire. 
The Kauri tree, say all the bushmen and Government forest men, is 
easily destroyed by fire. It is said popularly that the smoke of a fire 
will kill it. It is certain that a crown fire will easily kill it, and that 
a ground fire getting into the heap of refuse bark and resin-droppings 
at the base (‘‘ bukau ’’) will burn there for long—even, it is said, through 
the dripping-wet winter—and naturally kill the Kauri tree. The detec- 
tion and extinction of these smouldering fires is, of course, one of the 
essentials of a more completely organized Kauri protection. 
Every part of a Kauri tree (perhaps as much as with pines of the 
Pitch-pine class) is full of resin, and but for the wet climate of the Kauri 
forests as much organization would be required to protect them as is the 
case with the pine forests of the Mediterranean. Northern bushmen have 
been so accustomed to seeing the Kauri forest burnt when they work it 
that it may be advisable, when working the Kauri forests by Government, 
that southern bushmen should be employed, wholly or in part. I have 
heard of a case where a Kauri miller took precautions and, even with 
northern bushmen, nearly succeeded in quite excluding fire. Smoking 
was prohibited, and two men promptly dismissed for breaking the rule. 
Public sentiment in the matter of forest fires in New Zealand is weak. 
Thirty years ago, in South Africa, Magistrates would rarely inflict more 
than nominal penalties, the feeling being that after all a man had to 
live, and to burn the forest to produce crops or grazing was a venial sin, 
Then came a little deeper insight into the matter, the sentiment that 
man does not live by bread alone, but that he wants housing and firing, 
and that he must look to the forest for this. I understand that in New 
Zealand up till quite recently it was common for a Magistrate to inflict 
a nominal penalty of 5s. in fire cases. Considering the difficulty of 
proving forest fires, such penalties are nothing more than an encourage- 
ment to set fire again ! 
