Waipoua State Forest: Forest Sanctuary

W AIPOUA KAUR! FOREST

NEW ZEALAND FOREST SERVICE Information Series No. 14 A grove of kauri. FOREST SERVICE

Information Series No. 1 4-

WAIPOUA AU FOREST

Issued under the Authority ef THE HON. E. B. CORBETT, Minister of Forests

ALEX. R. ENTRICAN Director of Forestry

WELLINGTON: R. E. OWEN, GOVERNMENT PRINTER Contents

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 3 THE KA URI FOREST 4 A CLIFF ON TUTAMOE MOUNTAIN 8 TERRAIN OF WAIPOUA 8 HISTORICAL NOTES 8 THE FOREST SANCTUARY 11 PROTECTION FROM FIRE 14

Acknowledgments

THE wooD ENGRAVINGS are by E. Mervyn Taylor, of Wellington, from drawings made in the· forest.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS are by Messrs. J. H. Johns and E. P. Christensen, respectively.

J. Witten-Hannah, M.A., EDITOR. · The Wrzipoua River. W aipoua Kauri Forest INTRODUCTION Tms BOOKLET marking the setting aside of 22,500 acres of W aipoua State Forest as a forest sanctuary may well be prefaced by a brief statement of what would have been involved in the normal course of forest management. From the year 1930 the Forest Service !1ad administrative authority to begin in a small and tentative way at W aipoua the practice of 4 a dynamic forestry which would have been of the utmost significance for the perpetuation of kauri as an important forest species. Ecolo­ gists, the scientists who study the modes of life of forest plants and animals and their relations to their surroundings, have given to foresters the concept of species succeeding species in a forest. From this foresters have developed the concept of arresting the succession of species at the stage where it would be most useful, and where the desired species could be reproduced by means of natural regenera­ tion. Managed in this way, would have fulfilled the multiple purpose of forest park and botanical museum, protection forest and production forest. Waipoua Forest is, however, the last kauri forest of any size, and it is now the public wish that the main kauri stands should be reserved in a forest sanctuary to represent a natural kauri forest 3 THE KADRI FOREST

MURI FORESTS occurred. in historical times only in New Zealand north of latitude 38, that is, north from about Katikati 0n the East Coast and Kawhia on the West Coast; but within recent geological times, when the climate was kinder than it is now, the tree occurred in both the North and the South Islands. The kauri forests of the Great Barrier Island, Coromandel, Puhipuhi, and Russell, to name but some of the finest, occurred on the eastern side of the kauri range. These forests have long since disappeared; their magnificence is now only suggested here and there by dense groups of stumps indicating felled trees, and even the stumps are fast disappearing. Towards the western part of the tree's distribution these forests thinned out and kauri became more and more inter­ mingled with other kinds of forest and with other trees, principally taraire. Altogether, kauri forest, judging from old records and the study of soil types-for kauri profoundly affects the soil upon which it grows-occupied probably 2,000,000 acres. Not more than 25,000 acres of this remains, but there are many thousands of acres of good regeneration where kauri forest once existed. Since almost the beginning of this century, Waipoua Forest has contained the largest remnant of kauri. The occurrence Gf the tree in this forest is typical for western forests: kauri is present in small to large groves more or less mixed with taraire, or as scattered trees in mainly taraire forest. Although the total area of forest in W aipoua containing kauri is about 9,000 acres, little is in really heavy kauri stands. Kauri trees are mostly large in the virgin forest, and their huge crowns rise well above all other trees. The densest area of. uniformly good trees, known as Cathedral Grove, lies to the west of the main highway. The two largest remaining kauri trees in New Zealand are also in the sanctuary, and are known as "Tanemahuta" and " ". "Tanemahuta" is estimated to be 1,200 years old; its height is 1 70 ft., its girth 11 ft. above the ground is 45 ft. 6 in., the height from ground level to the first branch is 45 ft., and the area of crown spread is 11,600 square feet. " Te Matua Ngahere" has a girth at breast height of 53 ft., the girth below its crown bulge is 52 ft. 6 in., and the height from ground level to the first branches is 36 ft. The kauri forest owes its striking appearance to the main tree itself and to kauri grass and Gahnia, anothet grass-like plant, which form impenetrable thickets on the forest floor. Apart from kauri, Waipoua Forest consists of a mixture of rimu, northern rata, tawa, and towai, and there are small areas of kahikatea forest on wet ground. 4 " Te M atua N gahere ," 1- *1 t t t t t t ,~

Legend WCTipoua .Forest' Bovndary Boundo-ry ot=" Sanctuary Kawri Forest'

WAIPOUA, FORES

While the virgin forest contains negligible kauri regeneration, the burnt edges dominated by tea-tree contain a great deal of it, wherever seed trees are present. All stages of young kauri are to be seen, from seedlings to 1i.ckers, the best and some of the thickest of it being in a clearing on the rnain highway, where an attempt was once made to burn the forest. These areas of regeneration demon­ strate adequately the promise that kauri has for permanent forest management.

A CLIFF ON TUTAMOE MOUNTAIN A FORMER SURVEYOR-GENERAL of New Zealand, S. Smith, wrote of his discovery of a giant kauri in Tutamoe Forest near \Vaipoua, as follows: " I was conducting the triangulation north of Auckland in 1870-7,1, and on one occasion was in aJvance of my men, they carrying the instruments and myself using my long knife to cut a track up one of the south-east spurs of Tutamoe Mountain, when I sa,iV· out of the corner of my eye, in a slight Jepression, what I took to be a cliff. But as I advanced a few paces I saw that I could look around it, and then it dawned on me that it was a kauri tree of enormous size ! I think one of the men measured the tree with his arm, and at any rate 've came to the conclusion that it was just a chain ( 66 ft. round) ".

TERRAIN OF WAIPOUA \VAIPOUA STATE FOREST is situated on the North Auckland Peninsula, south of Harbour but in Hokianga County, and 150 rnilGs by road north of A:uckland City. The Waipoua country is hilly with long, mostly level-topped ridges running generally east to west and frequently rising to more than 1,000 ft. above sea level. In the north­ eastern corner of the forest a ridge rises to 2, 100 ft. above sea level. The ridges are broken by gullies, but they have rounded sides and their faces are not steep. There are many small streams, which rise rapidly when rain falls. The Waipoua River itself is a true mountain torrent, and where it passes behind the high ridge of Toetochatiko ( 1, 700 ft.) it has cut for itself a gorge several hundred feet deep and with precipitous sides. The W airau River tends to be more sluggish and has deeper and muddier waters.

HISTORICAL NOTES THE WAIPOUA BLOCK of 35,300 acres was purchased for £2,200 in a "deed made the eighth day of February 1876 between Her Majesty Queen Victoria of the one part and Parore te Awha of Kaihu Kaipara and Tiopira Kinaki of Waipoua of the other part". Parore and Tiopira both lived on these lands before the Treaty of 8 Kauri Snail: The kauri snail or pupurangi belongs to a large group of carnivorous snails found only in New Zealand. It is found in kauri forests but shuns the inimediate vicinity of the kauri tree because it is generally too dry for the worms on which the snail feeds.

W aitangi. They quarrelled, and in a battle at Ikarunganui Parore with the Ngapuhi defeated Tiopira, who led the Raroa, Ngatiwhatua, and U riohau. Parore aftenvards went to live at Kaihu and Tiopira and his people went back to live at W aipoua ; Parore asserted that they were under his protection while Tiopira maintained that he went back in his own right. In 1874 a Land Purchase Officer, Mr. E. T. Brissenden, negotiated with Tiopira for the purchase of Waipoua. Tiopira asked surveyors, Messrs. H. and D. Wilson, to survey the block, but Parore, who claimed the land by right of conquest, threatened to stop the survey. A private land purchase agent, Mr. ]. W. Preece, persuaded him, however, to withdraw his objection. The Native Land Court finally awarded the block to Parore and Tiopira in equal shares. The land was conveyed to the Crown, and in a Proclamation dated 5 September 1876 the Waipoua Block was declared waste lands of the Crown. W aipoua was originally intended for settlement, but the policy for using this block of land changed after the passing of the New Zealand State Forests Act in 1885, and on 1 June l 906 an area of 22,650 acres at Waipoua was reserved for State forest purposes. 9 In 1907 Dr. Leonard Cockayne carried out a botanical survey of vVaipoua Kanri Forest under instructions from the Minister of Lands, the Hon. Robert McNab; his report published in 1908 was the first detailed account of the conditions of plant life and formation of a kauri forest, and was an event of the first importance both for the sciences of botany and ecology and for forest administration. Another advance of some importance in the administration of vVaipoua as a forest was the abolition in 1910 of the system of " winter licences " to col1ect . The winter climate of the bare fern lands and the kauri-gmn reserves was too rigorous for indigent gum diggers, so it was the practice to issue licences for collecting naturally exuded and fossil kauri gum. 'fhe licence conditions were often infringed, and even to-day there are few kauri in the forest which do not bear still discernible signs of injuries made to increase the supply of gum· many of the burnt parts of the forest and many of the dead trees are visible results of the " winter licence " system. The future of Waipoua Kauri Forest was discussed in a report on "Forestry in New Zealand", which was compiled by the Under­ Secretary of Lands, W. C. Kensington, for the Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, and presented to Parliament in 1909. One of the chief reasons for milling kanri, the report said, was the great difficulty of protecting them from bush fires; the debris at the foot of the trees, known as pukahu or bookow, was very inflammable and it took a very small touch of fire to kill a kauri tree. This had more or less frustrated the Department's efforts to preserve clumps of kauri, but it was still withholding the Waipoua Kauri Forest from sale. The Under-Secretary classified Waipoua on the report map as permanent forest; and, in a contribution to the report, Dr. Cockayne made a strong plea for the continued preservation of W aipoua, and combated the view that such forests would necessarily be destroyed by fire if they were not milled. Jn August 1912 Mr. J. G. Coates, M.P., and representatives of the Kaipara Chamber of Commerce and local bodies interviewed the Prime Minister and Minister of Lands, the Right Hon. W. F. Massey, urging that Waipoua be opened for settlement. Mr. 1\fassey said he wanted to preserve a sufficient area of the kauri country for future generations and also to open up all land available for settlement. That summer Mr. Massey visited Waipoua to make up his mind about the proper course to pursue. The Royal Commission on Forestry, 1913, recommended that 200 acres of the most characteristic and healthy part of Waipoua State Forest should be reserved as a national kauri park and the rest milled by the Crown and the land settled. The Commission gave as reasons that the forest was too large for permanent reservation, the neighbouring land was suitable for settlement, and after logging 10 the land would support settlers; the forest was ancient and as the kauri trees died they would be replaced by other trees; and, although the forest was in almost the wettest district of the North Island, it would be in danger of fire in an abnormally dry season. Later in the same year the Prime Minister, Mr. Massey, and Messrs. J. G. Coates, H. G. Ell, and H. S. Reed, Members of Parliament, agreed that, if Waipoua State Forest were disposed of, between 2,000 and 2,500 acres should be kept as a national park. In 1916 the Government asked Mr. D. E. Hutchins, a graduate of l'Ecole Nationale des Eaux et Forets, Nancy, and with experience of forestry in India and Cape Colony, to demarcate Waipoua Forest to show what areas should be made available for exploitation under scientific management and what should be permanently reserved. Mr. Hutchins recommended scientific forest management and regeneration of W aipoua, and was against making the land available for settlement. In 191 7 it was decided to consolidate the forest by acquiring adjoining properties and to improve the protection of the forest. In 1919 a separate Forestry Department was set up, and the Commissioner of State Forests (the Minister), Sir Francis Dillon Bell, laid down a policy of conservation with a view to a sustained yield of timber. Waipoua was being extended in accordance with Mr. Hutchins' advice. In 1920, replying to a request for the eastern part of vVaipoua Forest to be opened up, Sir Francis said there clearly should be no diminution of the present forest reserves, and W aipoua would shortly be put under systematic management which would greatly benefit local settlers. Statutory recognition and administrative authority was given to the infant Forest Service by the Forests Act 1921-22, and the stage was set for the administration of Waipoua Forest by a properly established forest authority. Unfortunately, Waipoua was the last large kauri forest left to New Zealand; so in later years forestry had to give way to a philosophy of preserving the whole kauri forest in its more or less natural state.

FOREST SANCTUARY THE GovERNOR-GENERAL proclaimed on 3 July 1952 a forest sanctuary of 22,500 acres in Waipoua State Forest pursuant to section 20 of the Forests Act 1949. All of the continuous kauri stands and almost all of the other indigenous forest are included in the forest sanctuary. The purposes of the sanctuary are the preservation of the indigenous flora and fauna in their natural state, and scientific and like purposes. It is absolutely inviolable for the utilization of forest produce ; its boundary has been marked on a map which is open to public 11 inspection ; and the Proclamation setting it aside cannot be revoked except by an Act of Parliament. The Forest Service is responsible for protecting it from fire, trespass, and animal damage, a task which the Service has carried out successfully ever since it became a Department of State in 1920. Outside of the sanctuary there are limited isolated kauri stands in which the Forest Service will carry out experiments in natural and artificial regeneration, and the exotic forest will be managed in the ordinary way as State · forest land. An advisory committee has been appointed under section 15 of the Forests Act to advise the Minister of Forests on the adminis­ tration of the Waipoua Forest Sanctuary. The membership of the committee is as follows :

CHAIRMAN: The Member of Parliament for Hobson, S. W. Smith, Esquire.

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: The Conservator of Forests, Auckland, F. J. Perham, Esquire.

REPRESENTATIVES OF The Hokianga County Council, A. G. C. Yarborough, Esquire. The Hobson County Council, C. M. Downey, Esquire. The Auckland Institute and Museum, J. H. Rose, Esquire. The W aipoua Preservation Society, Incorporated, R. A. Watson, Esquire. The Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, Incor­ porated, W. M. Fraser, Esquire.

12 A kauri ricker. PROTECTION FROM FIRE

FIRE PREVENTION is a very serious responsibility both for the Forest Service and for visitors to Waipoua Forest Sanctuary. Fire is the greatest single menace to the forest; within a few hours it could undo the work of centuries. Virgin New Zealand rain forests will not burn easily under most conditions, but the strong winds and sunshine typical of our climate can very rapidly bring about high, if short-lived, fire hazards, and these conditions last long enough for irreparable harm to be done in a forest like Waipoua. Added to these dangers, North Auckland has every so often an abnormally dry summer in which forest fire hazards become extreme. A great fire in the upper Waipoua Forest occurred in 1897. The first caretaker and forest ranger, Mr. J. Maxwell, has recorded that: " This usually '"''et bush was then so dry that it burnt in strips wherever a fire was~~set on the o11tside or a spark flew across to the inside''. A former kauri bushman and sawmiller, Mr. Edward Thompson, has given us a more general description of the season: " It was I think in the year 1896-97 that there was a really dry summer in North Auckland. Acres of green bush died, especially on the limestone country, and much kauri bush was burnt. I was working in thr,Kaeo district about that time. Several sizeable rivers that summer ~~lmost ceased to run-the Orum-Peria, the Victoria Valley, and Mangonui-Owai Broadwood were just about dry, also some of the swamps further north were so deejJly burnt that they have been lakes ever since. These things I saw, and from what I have heard since, similar conditions prevailed further south. At that time there must have been fifty or more times as much bush in the North as there is today, so should there be another really dry summer and nothing much is done in the meantime, the few remaining kauri bushes and reserves may go up in smoke". There was another bad fire in Waipoua in March 1919, when a settler's clearing burn spread into the forest. Since then there have been bad fire seasons, but there has been a fire-control organization to prevent fires from developing in W aipoua. The most recent bad season was the summer of 1949-50 ; the Forest Service fought six fires in the vicinity of Waipoua Forest, any of which could have caused widespread damage in the kauri forest if it had not been brought under control while it was still small; the threat of fire to the forest immediately brought into action a well-equipped fire-fighting organiza­ tion whose plans had been laid well in advance to deal with fires in the forest or any part of the surrounding land.

R. E. OWEN, GOVERNMENT PRINTER, WELLINGTON.