New Life in Kauri Gumfield Circles

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 122, 13 August 1927, Page 26

New Life in Kauri Gumfield Circles

WASTE MADE PROFIT DESPITE reports to the contrary big profits apparently await those who are prepared to systematically dig for gum. As with the prospector of the early gold-digging days, however, so with the gum-digger, old methods must give way to the new.

A WAY in the far Xorth, in from Awanui, a big company is at work operating over a large field. Strict secrecy is maintained as to the success or otherwise of the organisation, but a large staff is engaged and, under the most modern methods, the gum is treated, sorted and packed, ready for export right on the spot. The marketing of the gum is arranged by the head office of the firm in Auckland.

fact, there is every indication worth-while profits are to be made at : the game, proving again the value of i commercialised energy and efficiency | concentrated and applied to industries in which the limited effort of the individual has failed. From a country welfare point of view the operations of the company have an additional advantage. The ! cultivation which the ground receives '

The whole organisation is absolutely self-contained, even to a store on the property which caters for the needs for the employees. The ground is systematically turned over to a depth of about six feet and, so thoroughly is the ground being exploited, that despite the fact that approximately 80 men are employed In the undertaking, little over ten acres can be got over a year at the present rate of progress. The efficiency of the organisation can be gauged when it ns understood that within two hours of the raw product leaving the field, it can be treated, graded and packed ready for the London or New York markets. Just what process the gum is put through is kept very much in the dark by the promoters of the company, and strangers are not welcomed. One thing is certain, however. The work is not being carried on at a loss. In

during the search for gum robs it of its deleterious qualities, and enables the best of pastures to be laid down. On the country already worked tests have proved that at least 11 varieties of grasses grow to perfection. The end and aim of the promoters is to establish small dairy farms on the cleaned-up ground. If the operations of the company are meeting with justifiable rewards, then the country as a whole must benefit eventually. Thousands of acres of gum land's in the North lie unworked and useless. If it is proved that these lands can be exploited for profit, and left in a state which makes profitable farming possible, then a new era of prosperity will be in sight for the whole of the North. Future operations of the company will certainly be watched with the greatest of interest.