AGATHIS AUSTRALIS. 149 
or private buildings. It is largely used for railway-sleepers, bridges, wharves, 
and constructive works generally ; for telegraph-posts, mine-props, caps, struts, 
&c.; for the masts and deck-planking of ships, for which it is unsurpassed, being 
regular in the grain, free from large knots, of smooth even surface, and able to 
resist a large amount of wear. It is also largely used for the outer and inner 
planking of coasting craft and boats. 
It affords the best timber for seats in churches and other public buildings, 
as it takes a high polish: it is of equal value for bank counters and fittings. 
Kauri is adapted to all the purposes of the cabinetmaker where a light-coloured 
wood is required: ordinary wood is excellent for common furniture, or for 
framing as supports for veneer: figured and mottled varieties are highly prized 
for ornamental work. It is highly valued for coopers’ ware. 
It is largely used for fencing-posts and rails, palings, and shingles, both 
sawn and split, and for tramway-rails. 
A large quantity of second-class timber is utilised for packing-cases, tallow- 
casks, shedding, and other temporary purposes. 
It may safely be stated that no other New Zealand timber is capable of 
being applied to such varied uses. 
When felled during the growing season kauri is subject to considerable 
shrinkage, especially if the log is converted at once: when felled during the 
dormant season and properly seasoned the shrinkage is extremely trifling, and 
the timber stands remarkably well, even under trying conditions. It has been 
stated that it shrinks longitudinally, and is hable to warp and twist; but these 
_ defects are mainly, if not entirely, caused by its being felled during the spring 
and summer months, and to its having been used in an unseasoned state. 
All the commercial timbers of New Zealand are commonly used in the green 
state: it is very rare to learn that timber has been properly seasoned before 
being worked up even for buildings of some importance. So generally is this the 
case that builders plead ‘‘it 1s according to custom”’ to use green timber, even 
when it is specified that seasoned timber alone shall be used. Such treatment 
is obviously calculated to bring our native timbers into disrepute. 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE GENUS. 
Agathis comprises about ten species, which are distributed through the 
Malay Archipelago, Fiji, eastern tropical Australia, New Caledonia, and New 
Zealand. 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES. 
Agathis australis, the only New Zealand species, has a very limited distribu- 
tion. With the exception of a few isolated trees on the West Coast, it is 
confined to the area between the North Cape and the thirty-eighth parallel 
of south latitude. 
A few trees occur between the North Cape and Cape Maria van Diemen, 
but itis found in large quantity between Whangape and Whangaroa, and between 
Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangarei: these districts, with the 
Northern Wairoa, contain the largest kauri forests north of the Auckland 
Isthmus. Although found in numerous localities between Whangarei and Auck- 
land it is in small quantity when compared with its abundance in the North. 
Large forests formerly existed on the shores of the Manukau, but they have 
been exhausted by the sawmillers, and for some years past the chief portion of 
the logs converted in that district has been obtained from the Kaipara and 
Hokianga districts. A few trees or small clumps are occasionally found on the 
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