In the great kauri forests of the north, the logs for cutting were so heavy that it was no easy matter to convey them to the mill. Sometimes wooden tram-lines were constructed. Second-rate timber was used for the sleepers, the rails, sawn out of better quality, being laid in notches. Wooden wedges held them tightly in place. The huge logs were loaded on trucks, which were hauled along the tram-line. to the mill. If large streams were close at hand, it was always easier to float the logs downstream. A track twenty-five to thirty feet wide was cut through the bush, down which the logs were skilfully rolled to the water by timber jacks.

The old water-wheel was soon supplanted by the steam-engine. With the invention of the gang and circular saws, it was possible to cut more in a week than the old mill could do in a year, and with each improvement in the method of saw-milling, greater inroads were made upon the forest. Today some modern mills use electric power, and the locomotive, hauler-tractor, and motor truck have taken the place of slow-moving bullock teams which were once considered indispensable. With all these improvements, our attack upon the forest has intensified, especially as our demand for tim­ber is greater than ever.

A locomotive hauling kauri logs on the west Coast of Auckland

Freeing a jam of kauri logs with the aid of a 'bush devil' an ingenious contrivance of levers and ropes.

A kauri log ready for transport to the mill.

The ' Kai Warra Warra Saw Mill,' which was completed by four enterprising millwrights in 1842. 'A water wheel Is placed athwart the stream, which works several circular saws, and the water is dammed up above, to maintain the requisite head,' was the description which S. C. Brees gave to these opera­tions. The engraving is taken from his ' Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand.'

Pit-sawing.   The   photograph   shows   how   the   man the pit takes  his share of the  work.

Bullocks hauling a kauri log over a rough road to the mill. This method is one of the past: to-day tractors are in general use.

'Tripping' a Dam in the Piha District

Some bold axeman endeavours by great effort to effect a clearance.... he bounds from floating log to floating log; he has to be almost as nimble as a cat, it being nearly certain death to fall into the water.