FOREST GIANTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 600, 3 August 1933, Page 2

FOREST GIANTS

HUGE KAURIS BIGGER MEASUREMENTS THAN THE CALIFORNIAN i GIANTS. j WORLD'S LARGEST TREE? 'I . j The revival of Arbor Day, when ; childrens* . minds are being directed to. ward the beauty and utility of our (native trees, calls up the desirability i of school children being reminded that to New Zealand attaches the fame of having produced what is probably the world's largest tree. Indeed, it may come as a surprise to many grown-up New Zealanders to learn that the records show that kauris have grown, in the Auckland province measuring more than double the bulk of the boasted "big tree" of America. No known tree, either in the Northern Hemisphere or in Australia, ap-

proached the kauri in girth and height r combined! The late Mr. Percy Smith, of New Plymouth, for many years sur-veyor-general, h'as said. that it was common knowledge in the sixties and seventies of last century that there was a huge kauri tree growing on the hills at the head of the Tararu Creek, just north of Thames. "This tree," he says, "was stated by th'ose who had seen it to be 28ft in diameter." A tree at Mercury Bay measuring 24ft and another at Mangonui Bluff, 22ft across, are ;also mentioned by Kirk in his forest flora. Accidental Discovery. However, the most authentic record of New Zealand's biggest trees is supplied by Mr. Percy Smith. This mon_ ster grew in the Tutamoe forest, north of Dargaville, and was known to the Maoris by the name "Kairara." Mr. Smith himself discovered it quite accidentally. He states that while conducting the triangulation north of Auckland in 1870-74 and using his long knife to cut a track up one of the soufh-east spurs of1 Tutamoe Mountain, he saw, out of the corner of his eye, as it ' were, in a sl'ight depression, what he took to be a cliff. But as he advanced a few paces he found that he could look round it and then it dawned on him that it was a kauri of enormous size. One of his men measured the tree and found that it was 66ft in cir. cumference. This measurement, he he says, was afterwards confirmed by Mr. Henry Wilson, Crown Lands ranger. Mr. Wilson's measurements gave "Kairara" a diameter of 22ft, with 100ft of bole to the lowest branch. This, therefore, was the largest kauri of which fully-attested measurements are on record. Sawn up without waste "Kairara" would have yielded 295,788 sup. feet in the log, which if laid in 12 x 1 planks end to end would have covered a distance of 56 miles, or the distance between Auckland and Rangiriri by rail. Allowing 25 per cent. for waste, this one tree would have supplied sufficient timber to build 19 average houses. The Californian Champion. These measurements may be compared wtih those of the much-adver-tised "big tree" of California, known as "The Mother of the Forest." Its gross measurement is only 140,619 sup. feet. Its basal diameter is slightly greater than that of "Kairaru," and although it is higher it loses in bulk by reason of its taper or conical shane, whereas it is the cylindrical form of the kauri that furnishes its great bulk of timber. Treated in the same way America's "big tree" would measure only 26.6 miles and build but nine houses, so that New Zealand's. big tree contained more than twice as rnuch timber as the American champion. Unfortunately, all of these unique monuments of New Zealand flora have been destroyed by fire, and as their ages have been computed at upward of 2000 years, it is to be hoped that future generations will sentimentally preserve the existing trees in Waipoua Forest and Trounson Park, until they, ' perhaps, equal the measurements of "Kairara" and other giants.