AN IMMENSE KAURI.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1436, 21 July 1883, Page 4

AN IMMENSE KAURI.

The following description is by a correspondent of .the New Zealand Herald This treo is fully 13 feet in diameter, and over 40 feet in circumference. For a distance of 45 feet from the ground there is not a branch, and it tapers almost to nothing at all. The trunk contains 43,752 feet of timber, Now, New Zealand trees are almost all of slow growth, and the first difficulty in a case of this kind is to tell how many centuries the tree has stood since it stopped growing. Taking all we know into consideration, this tree may be 3000 years old, and at all events is not likely to be less than 2000. Think of the wilds of Tararua when the Greeks were beleaguering tho City of Troy. It was gaining strength when Solomon dedicated the Temple of Jerusalem. It was a tree when llomulus laid tho foundation of the Eternal City. The history of England, with all its rulers—of Britons, Romans, Anglo-Saxons—is but of yesterday compared with the life of this tree, which stands yet, apparently finished in growth, but with no sign of decay about it, as if it could see another 3000 years pass over its head, And yet there are signs of the end, for there are two stout rata vines extending from the ground to the lower branches and, if time were given, theso would grow into a tree and kill the venerable kauri, How long that process would occupy I will not speculate upon,"

A few miles from Collinsville, Illinois, recently there was dug from an ancient mound, 19 human skeletons of adults and children, male and femalo, most of them in a good stato of preservation, and a large quantity of pottery, copper and stono ornaments, and domestic and agricultural implements Among the latter were several flint hoes.

The Empress of Germany has given a gold brooch, valued at 50 guineas, to Miss Jessie Dee, the daughter of the Mumbles lighthouse-keeper, who assisted in saving the crew of a German barque which was wrecked on a rock near the lighthouse on Jan, 17, A correspondent of the South Australian Register writes" A gentleman who has launched out into ostrichfarming considerably of late recently invited a number of his friends to inspect the noble birds. On going into the paddock the host, noticed that one of his friends wore his watch chain outside of his coat, advised him to put it out of sight, and tho ostriches had a great weakness for swallowing anything which glitters. The owner of the chain laughed at the idea of tho thing, and left his chain where it was.' During the inspection they were standi ing very close to one of the birds, when, without a moment's warning, the bird caught the guard in its beak, and, before anything could be dono to save it, had gobbled up both watch and chain."

Baron Ward, the famed Yorkshire groom, who playod so prominent a part at the Court of Parma, died recently at Vienna. Without any educational foundation he contrived to write and speak German, French, and Italian,, and conducted the affairs of State with, considerable cleverness, if not with remarkable straightforwardness. Baron Ward was married to a humble person of Vienna, and left four children. Perhaps no man of modern times passed a more varied and romantic life than Ward, the groom, statesman, and. friend of sovereigns. From the stable lie rose to the highest offices of a little kingdom, at a period of great European political interest, and died in retire, ment, pursuing the rustic occupation of a farmer, carrying with him to the grave many curious State, secrets.