166 NATIVE FOREST AND PLANTATIONS OF INTRODUCED TREES. 
report of 1913 was the end of it as a tree for planting in the Government 
timber plantations. What is said to be the best Larch in New Zealand 
is at and near Homebush, Canterbury—Mr. Deans’. This at forty years 
is still healthy and strong, but the fencing-poles split from it have not 
shown durability. 
When an exotic tree hus passed the cultivation test and has been 
moved into the grade of a possible forest-tree, foresters proceed cautiously 
with it. They feel their way like a ship in a fog. That will doubtless 
be the attitude of New Zealand forestry with regard to the planting of 
exotic timbers generally. It must be so with crops that take from forty 
to eighty years to mature and cost (with interest) from £50 to £230 
per acre to plant. 
PLANTING VERSUS NATIVE FOREST OF KAURI, 
Though increasing the stock of Kauri in a Kauri forest, by inter- 
planting some 100 to 300 Kauri standards to the acre, can easily be 
shown to pay handsomely; whether a full artificial plantation with some 
2,722 trees to the acre (4 x 4) would be remunerative may be a debatable 
point. 
Kauri does not seem to grow well alone. As has been said of Oak, 
‘* Kauri pure is Kauri poor’’; and if this be true, what tree should 
be planted with Kauri? Supposing a suitable nurse-tree to plant with 
the Kauri were found, and that the Kauri carried a timber ‘ acrim ”’ 
of 114, which is average Spruce cut at 100 years in Europe (Schlich’s 
vol. 3), that would mean a total of 11,400 c. ft. of Kauri for the axe 
at 100 years of age; and 11,400 c. ft. at 2s. per cubic foot royalty 
would represent a return of £1,140 per acre. 
[f planting Kauri (with upkeep to the age when thinning equals main- 
tenance) cost £15 per acre, that, with interest at 4 per cent., would 
amount to £757 at the end of 100 years, 
Thus, provided the planted Kauri has ‘‘ bush ’’ conditions and grows 
well, and provided Kauri timber rises in price to 2s. per cubie foot 
(16s. 8d. per 100 sup. ft.), which is about double its present price, and a 
moderate price to look forward to a hundred years from now, it might 
pay the State to make regular plantations of Kauri. The returns from 
a normal forest would be about 10,000 cub. ft. q.g. at 2s. = £1,000 per 
acre. There would be further returns from resin and from the accom- 
panying timber-trees, thus leaving a good margin of profit after making 
full allowance for accidents. 
_ But the figures discussed above for interplanting Kauri as standards 
in the native bush are so much more favourable—from one-fifth to one- 
tenth the cost of full planting (pp. 130-132)—that, so far as bush can be 
secured for the purpose, interplanting standards seems likely to be always 
preferred. This is an additional reason for demarcating and preserving 
Kauri “ bush ’’ of every sort, even Tea-tree or Manuka scrub. 
In the Waipoua and other forests Kauri is associated naturally with 
Tawa and Taraire. As associate trees for Kauri the planting of Tawa 
or Taraire might pay expenses. They are both fast-growing trees, and 
are both useful timber-trees that have been mostly overlooked but are now 
finding their market. - 
Said Mr. W. B. Leyland in his evidence given to the Forest Com- 
mission (p. 49), “‘ Taraire grows very rapidly. Eighteen years ago 
I planted a Taraire for ornamental purposes, and it now measures 38 in. 
