KAURI GUM CONTROL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1928, Page 9

KAURI GUM CONTROL.

CONFUSING STATEMENT. MR. WYNYARD EXPLAINS. Mr. M. H. Wynyard, chairman of the Kauri Gum Control Board, stated this morning that apparently the reference in the Lands Department statement to the Government stocks of kauri gum which are under the control of the Department, is confused with the operations of the Kauri Gum Control Board. The inference was that the net loss on the Control Board’s operations for last year was £24,783, and a letter appearing subsequently in the ‘‘Star” assumed this, whereas the position is quite different. The Control Board, said Mr. Wynyard, was authorised by its constituting Act to dispose of the Government stocks of qauri gum. and to ascertain the true value had a valuation made at the presentday market prices, whereas the previous valuations of the stocks had been based on the cost price. Most of the gum had been purchased by the Government some years ago, when prices were high, and v® n ’ oss . £24.783 referred to is chiefly the difference between the former book values of the stock and the valuation made by the board, and is not in any way a loss on the Control Board’s operar>OllBj ,®* nce i ts institution the Control Board has not bought nor exported any gum, but has carried on a brokerage business for the sale of producers’ gum to the exporters. The board’s business in this respect is growing from month to month and indicates the increasing confidence being reposed in it by the producers.