The Kauris of Waipoua.

Then, second only to the halcyon charm of such places, is the feeling of mingled awe and admiration that comes over one in the presence of that king of our forests, the grand kauri pine. Much as I have seen of the kauri forests, that feeling abides; I can never enter such a bush without something of the Maori veneration for the ancients of the Wao-nui-a-Tane. The tree-worship of the olden woodsmen seems the most natural thing page 28 in the world in such a forest as Waipoua; a forest which one hopes will always be preserved tapu against the saw and axe of commercialism. The sawmiller casts a greedy eye on Waipoua, despite the fact that it is a State forest reserve. It should be safeguarded in every possible way; it is a national treasure that will become more precious as the years go on.

Much has been heard of the Big Trees of California; here is the biggest tree of all, in volume of timber. The great feature of the kauri that made it so valuable to the timber men was its huge bulk and absence of taper. The late Sir David Hutchens, the famous forester who was so enthusiastic about our forests, wrote that “probably one may take the maximum height of the New Zealand kauri as having been about 275 feet.” But its great bulk reduced its apparent height; the spear-like kahikatea looks taller.

The solidity, the bulk, the exact parallelism of the sides from the ground to first branches, give the kauri its character of power and majesty. It seems sacrilege to lay crosscut saw to the remaining groves of so chieftainlike a tree.

“… which has outlived so long The flitting generations of mankind.”