Forestry,  About  a  quarter  of  the  country  is  still
covered  with  forests,  containing  a  very  varied  and
beautiful  flora  and  many  valuable  timber  trees,  chief
among  which  are  the  kauri  and  totara  pines  and
several  varieties  of  heech  trees.  For  the  sake  of
cheapness  and  ease  of  construction,  and  in  the  North
Island  on  account  of  the  frequency  of  earthquake
shocks,  most  of  the  houses  of  New  Zealand  are  built
of  timber,  and  the  Government  Buildings  at  Welling-
ton are  probably  the  largest  wooden  structure  in  the
world.  Saw-milling  comes  next  only  to  the  industries
concerned  with  meat-preserving  and  dairy  produce
in  the  value  of  its  output.  Some  timber  is  exported
to  Australia  and  the  JPacific  Islands.  But  from  the
value  of  the  export  kauri  gum  is  more  important  than
the  timber.  This  is  exuded  and  collected  from  the
growing  trees,  but  the  largest  quantities  are  found
in  a  fossil  state  buried  several  feet  in  the  ground  on
the  site  of  ancient  forests  of  the  kauri  pine  in  the
Auckland  peninsula,  where  gum-digging  is  the  means
of  livelihood  to  several  thousand  Maoris  and  colonists.
The  gum  is  used  in  the  making  of  the  finest  varnish.
The  New  Zealand  forests  have  a  remarkable  lack  of
wild  animals  and  birds  of  any  value,  the  gigantic
wingless  moas,  once  hunted  for  food  by  the  Maoris,
being  now  extinct.
