or Tawai
Maori name for several species of New Zealand Beech-trees, N.O. Cupuliferae. The settlers call them Birches (q.v.).
1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition':
«Tawhai. Large and durable timber, used for sleepers.»
1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 125:
«Tawhai, Red-birch (from colour of bark). A handsome tree,eighty to one hundred feet high. Fagus Menziesii, Hook.[also called large-leaved birch]. Tawhai, Tawhairaunui,Black-birch of Auckland and Otago (from colour of bark), Fagus fusca, Hook.»