British sovereignty over New Zealand was proclaimed in 1840. At the time, the country was peopled by many Maori villages and a few Europeans (massively British), mainly installed in North Island. The economic potential was promising, natural resources appeared limitless. One of these resources was , better known under its Maori name of kauri tree. This is a conifer of the family, with small persistent leaves, and very tall straight trunkscan reach a height of 50 metres and a diameter of several metres at the foot. Its wood was quickly found to be of very high quality ideal for naval construction or luxury furnishing. This was enough to generate a real craze among colonists, who saw the tree as a source of income. However, the trees grow on rough volcanic soil, in remote areas and in the midst of subtropical vegetation. At the outset, the loggers felled the kauris, cut the trunks down into short lengths, removed them from the felling area with ox teams and either sent them downhill in water-lubricated wooden troughs, or stored them in reservoirs built on the larger rivers. Once the reservoirs were full, the dams were broken and the current carried the kauri logs downstream. Once on the beach, the logs were gathered into rafts and floated to the sawmills. The principle, while clever, was not very productive, many logs being damaged when rolling down the steep slopes or getting stuck between boulders.
