BRIGHTER OUTLOOK

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 58, 31 May 1927, Page 13

BRIGHTER OUTLOOK

KAURI-GUM MARKET OVERSEAS INQUIRIES CONTROL OPPOSED TAURING the past week there has been a decided improvement in the kauri gum market. Although prices have not advanced a great deal, the inquiries from overseas merchants have been more frequent. A PPARENTLY the disturbance in China has been responsible for the activity, as the supplies of Chinawood oil have fallen off, and kauri gum is taking its place. There is a difference of opinion among the Auckland merchants, but the majority of them admitted this morning that there has been more inquiry for the lower grades of kauri gum. For the past two years the lower quality gums have been practically unsaleable, but now some of the merchants are beginning to get busy. One merchant expressed the opinion this morning that if the gum market were not controlled the industry would be in a much better position. He said that the Americans, always the largest buyers of kauri gum, resent Government interference. The same merchant said that the German market was not as good as it had been years ago. He had been waiting for two years for payment from a German firm. Germany, he remarked, had no money and was unable to get letters of credit. CAUSED BY CHINESE TROUBLE “If the Chinese trouble continues, it will give quite a filip to the kauri gum trade,” said Mr. W. H. Wharfe to-day. “The outlook will become a little brighter for the producer, whose position in the past has been tragic.” The increased demand, he continued, was due to the trouble in China. Supplies of China-wood oil, always a big competitor of kauri gum, were now uncertain, and the price had advanced about 100 per cent in the consuming markets. Mr. Wharfe said he had had inquiries from both England and America. Mr. F. Maxwell was not so optimistic. He considered that there had been no appreciable difference in the market and that consumers nowadays forwarded their orders more slowly than in the past. He thought that any orders which had come to hand would not make any great difference to the market generally. LINOLEUM GUMS Mr. S. Rawnley said that there was an increased demand for kauri gum for the manufacture of linoleums. There had not been any increase in the price as far as he was concerned, but there had been an increased demand for quantities of the lower grade gum. He did not think that it would last. One or two of the country merchants have taken on a few extra hands, and some of them are of opinion that there will be a further strengthening of the market.