THE BIG KAURI TREE.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4775, 29 April 1884, Page 2

THE BIG KAURI TREE.

(To the Editor of the * vening Star.)

Sib, —There is no need to describe the big kauri tree at the head of the Waiotahi creek. Its name is as well known at the Thames as that of the Big Pump, and its fame extends throughout New Zealand. Its photograph can be found in every English speaking country in the world ; for what natural object have we whose likeness can give a better idea of the grandeur of the New Zealand forest than the likeness of this noble tree p With us the tree is a kind of reverence, and the happiest expedition for a family is the pilgrimage to the big kauri tree. The beauty of the tree is still further en« hanced by its picturesque situation. On one side a precipitous rock towers skywards, on the other appears the deep valley below, where a kauri forest has just been destroyed, and on another side a few kauris stand like giants on the side of the hill away in the distance. The big kauri is the central object in a lovely forest scene. Now this tree is to be cut down; perhaps this week—soon without doubt. There are so many thousand feet of timber in the bole, and so many thousand bundles of shingles can be obtained from the limbs that its i fate is sealed. There was a hope that its inaccessible position would have saved it, but that is now gone. There is no one to blame; the buyer of the timber has law on his side to cut it down, and the landlord is quite,right to sell hi 3 own. We might subscribe and buy the tree from the present purchaser, but then we have to do with the landlord, who has a.perfect right to destroy the tree, even if we buy it. One thing is certain that if the tree be cut down we shall lose the grandest natural wonder in the neighborhood of Thames. I hope you will use the influence of your widely circulating journal to hinder such a desecration to the natural scenery.—T am, &c, R N. A. W.