TRADE IN FUNGUS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1033, 7 February 1882, Page 4

TRADE IN FUNGUS.

The Colonies and India says —“ Among the various articles of trade exported from New’ Zealand perhaps the most curious is a species of fungus which grows on decaying trees in all parts of the North Island, but most plentyf ully in the provincial districts of Taranaki. In shape this fungus resembles the human car, and it is of a brov n colour and semi-transparent when fresh. It was not deemed of suflieent importance to be included in the list of colonial exports until 1872, when 58 tons, the value of which was £1927, were shipped, in 1877, 220 tons, valued at £11,318, were exported, and last year the value of the export was 6227. China is the destination of this product. It is much prized there as an article of food, forming the chief ingredient of the favouring soup of that country on account of its gelatinous properities and its pecular flavour. Whether the immigrant Chinese, who were more numerous in New Zealand five years ago than they are now, discovered the virtues of this fungoid growth, or whether the Maoris, with their naturally keen wit, hit upon the idea that the substance would just suit the peculiar tastes of the Chinese, does not appear. The Europeans in the Colony, however, have never acquired a taste for it. To prepare this fungus for export, nothing more is required than to pick it from the trunks of the trees and dry it in the air or under sheds. When dry, it is packed in bags and shipped to China by way of Sydney or San Francisco. Very few white men, except those of idle dissipated habits, collect fungus. The children of the bush farmers, however, often keep themselves in pocket money by gathering it and selling it to the dealers. The task of collecting is one, too, which just suits the Maori disposition. When'the Natives are in want of funds for tobacco, or. desire to raise the wherewithal to provide the large feasts whick it is their delight to give periodically, they send out parties to the bush who bring in fungus in large quantities for sale.”