"The wood is full of gum, and is very valuable as timber. They told us it was the finest wood in the world for shingles, as the gum preserved it from the effects of the weather. A great deal of the lumber from the Kauri pine is shipped to other parts of New Zealand, and also to Australia, China, Feejee, and other places where it can find a market. Many of the sticks have been sent to England to serve as masts and spars for her Majesty's ships of war, and altogether the trade in Kauri lumber is very large. The result is, a great deal has been cut away, and the time is not very distant when the Kauri forests will be gone.
[Illustration: STOCK-FARM IN THE SUBURBS.]
"While we were walking among the Kauri trees our guide prodded the earth with a spear that he carried, and he kept doing this so frequently that we asked what it meant. He answered that he was looking for Kauri gum, and after a time he struck a hard substance, which he dug down to and brought to light.
"It was a lump of Kauri gum, and looked more like amber than anything else; in fact, it is said to be used very often in place of amber for the mouth-pieces of pipes and cigar-holders, and for other purposes where amber is ornamental. It is worth eight or ten cents a pound, and the shipment of Kauri gum from Auckland amounts to nearly a million dollars annually.
"'How do you get the gum?' one of us inquired of the man who was showing us through the forest.
"'In just the way you see,' he replied. 'The gum cannot be obtained from the tree by any process of tapping or reducing from the wood. The tree falls and dies, and then, when it decays, the gum collects in lumps in the ground. It takes years and years for it to collect, and this little lump, which I have just taken from the ground, has probably been lying here for centuries. A new forest has risen where the old one stood, and has taken a long, long while to grow.'
"We asked what other timber-trees there were in New Zealand, and our informant mentioned the Kahikatea, or white pine; the Rimu, or red pine; the Totara, which is claimed to be impervious to the attacks of the teredo; and the Tanekaha, which has a handsome, close-grained, and durable wood, and whose bark furnishes a strong dye. Then there is the Matai, which is much like the English yew, and is used for making furniture; the Miro, which has a beautiful red fruit on which pigeons grow fat; and the Kawaka, which has a remarkable leaf and a durable wood.