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NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND.
35
of purposes, but it is unfortunately scarcely utilized for anything except firewood and fencing by the bush settlers, who clear their lands by felling and burning the forests. A man well acquainted with the New Zealand bush can tell to a very great extent the nature and quality of the soil by the kind of trees which grow upon it; for instance, the Kauri pine (Demarara Australis), the timber of which is considered very valuable for ship and house building, and the average height of which is 120 feet, with a diameter of 10 feet, grows upon land of very little use for pasture or grain; and again, where the
