BOOMERANG RETURNS
MARKED SALES SLUMP. The depression has hit the boomerang trade. The bottom has fallen out of the gum tip market. And the music of the gumleaf orchestra do not entice as many pennies as it did in the good old days. In other words the last of the original Australians around Sydney are feeling the slump. After all a boomerang to a white man is not yet a necessity. At one time a good boomerang would fetch 10s, while ordinary kind could be sold with ease for 5s each according to one aho. But now the first-grade article brings only 5s and inferior kinds go for 2s 6d. Gum tips brought 6d a bunch in the boom times, but now the abo. salesmen are lucky to get 3d a bunch. Twopence a bunch is quite common, and "job lots" have been sold at ld. As for gumleaf playing and street singing . . . well, the return is poor now. Competition from cornet soloists, trombone players, miniature jazz orchestras, and even street bagpipe players is so strong that the black musicians are having a leaii time.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/RMPOST19310921.2.47
Bibliographic details
Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 24, 21 September 1931, Page 5
Word Count
185BOOMERANG RETURNS Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 24, 21 September 1931, Page 5
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Rotorua Morning Post. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in