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available on State Forest files. Of course they could not be available if they did not exist, and Judge Acheson's statement is particularly regrettable in that it was made (as we were informed during the hearing before us) after he had been told by the responsible and reputable counsel who appeared before him for the Crown that figures were not then available and that no appraisement had then been made, though it was in process of being made. In point of fact, the appraisement was not actually made and completed, so we are informed by Mr. Meredith, whose statement, based on his own knowledge and investigation, we accept unreservedly as correct, until some months after the date of Judge Acheson's report. 60. It now appears from the evidence of Mr. Campbell (who is a recently retired Conservator of Forests) that, although there are valuable stands of kauri on the land, they do not exist to anything like the extent suggested by either Mr. Skelton or Judge Acheson; and it must be remembered that any appraisement which is made now is based upon an additional growth of the trees over a period of eighty years. Moreover, some scores of thousands of pounds of Government funds have been expended upon roading, forest conservation, and other items of capital expenditure. Even so, Mr. Campbell's valuation of millable timber (mostly kauri) on the land is only £121,509. 61. However all that may be, it is the value at the time of the transaction, and not the value of to-day, that we have to consider. "We do not doubt that at that time there was a market for kauri; but necessarily, in the then stage of development of the country, the demand must have been comparatively limited. Not only that, but there were valuable stands of kauri in many parts of the Northland which were much more accessible and much more readily and less expensively marketable than the timber on this block. There was evidence given before Judge Acheson himself in 1925 on a reference to him for inquiry and report upon the petition to Parliament of Tamaho Maika (in re Te Kauae-o-Ruru-Wahine Block) with regard to the price of certain kauri-forest land paid by the Crown in 1875. One witness deposed that a little before 1875 he was dealing in timber, and bought kauri' in the squared log close to the water and easily worked at the rate of 2d. per 100 ft. (equal to l£d. or, at most, for ordinary log measurement). He said that he did not consider that the timber on the block then in question could have been profitably worked till about 1905 or 1906 when the prices of timber rose, and that it was of no commercial value in 1875. He also said that in 1886, and perhaps at the end of 1884, he bought kauri from Europeans in the Pupuki Block, which was convenient to a splendid creek and handy to a harbour, and that the timber was sold to the Europeans for 4d. per 100 ft. superficial. Another witness said that the value of the timber in 1875 was nil, and that the value of kauri timber in that year was 2d. to 4d. per 100 ft. adjacent to water. He also said that about 1888 he sold millions of feet of kauri timber for the Crown at Whangaroa at Is. per 100 ft. and that this timber was very conveniently situated. 62. In this present inquiry, Mr. Campbell's evidence is that during the years 1896 to 1898 various large quantities of kauri timber were available at prices varying from Bd. to Is. per 100 ft. and failed to secure buyers; that in May, 1897, a quantity of 925,000 ft. was offered from the Puketi Forest itself for sale at Is. per 100 ft. without securing a purchaser; that in 1902 it was offered by advertisement from Matawherohia at Is. and 9d. per 100 ft.

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