KAURI GUM INDUSTRY. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 22

KAURI GUM INDUSTRY. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

AUCKLAND, September 2. Little is iieard of tie kauri gum industry noivadays, but it is an important trade for all that. In the Northern Warra* district there are some 900 men employed in winning kauri gum, 600 of them being Croatians.' The weekly average amount won pei man is slightly over half a hamdie-d-weight, and- the average weekly earnings amount to 30s. There are many who make double that amount, and others again whose income is lamentably short of the amount stated. Tho conditiojs of the industry compared with. 10 years ago -are totally changed. Although the tonnage received in Auckland compa<ws favourably with that of previous years, the classes now dealt wifcb< are such as were then unmarketable > •The old-time dagger scraped his gum with lavish disregard to the value of chips, and as for dust, it was an 'article only, valued fox fire kindling. Now it matter*' not how poor and' inferior are th« qualities, all grades pass into the buyers* hands, and it is safe to state that fully; two-thirds of the total amount handled ia composed of chips and sif tings. Shallowi fern gum, which is the most prized for th« manufacture of varnish, is still in places, fairly plentiful, and the fortunate digged who strikes • a pocket' of *uch is remunerated to a degree which his foreTunn&rs never in their wildest dreams imagined. . During th£ summer months' the bulk of the - grades^ is obtained from the swamps, and it is in this class of work that the Croatian! excels,- With his nether limbs encased in hip Twots of Brobdingnagian size, he successfully scorns the rheumatic effect of working knee-deep im .water, and by the aid of peat saws, axes, and immense pipe syphons puts in wide drains in the wettest swamps, and thereby converts- inpassable swamps into exploitable firm soil. In many instances they have found failure, but tha. most of them have been welf rewarded for their enterprise. It was prophesied a decade ago that in this year of grace kauri gum, would, as an article of commerce, be a thing of the past, but the immense ewamjs areas have yet to yield their harvest. 11 and when some systematic plan is evolved! whereby the deeply submerged and) ; morassed resin can be more advantageously ( obtained then the industry will take on a. new lease of life. As it is the sum of £1250 is weekly disbursed amongst the Wairoa diggers, ana tnat in itseli constitutes a fair volume of trade. Occasionally reports come to hand of big finds. In days of yore such were of 'common occurrence, on virgin fields, But even to-day) searchers are rewarded in .finding valuable patches. Recently at Mangakahia a Native woman and, her party took 2Scwi> out of an area only a few yards square. A patty of Austrians a few weeks ago unearthed in the Kafhu Valley a semi-< transparent piece weighing 2201b, and only a few days ago a lump weighing 301b was discovered on the .river bank at a. point where the tideway- had scoured awar the surface.