THE GUM TRADE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 7 November 1910, Page 5

THE GUM TRADE.

A DEAD MARKET. (United Press Association.J DARGAVTLLE, Saturday. In the course of an interview with the "North Auckland Times, " reporter, Mr. Dell, the manager of Harding and Co.'s Northern Wairoa gum business. stated that the market is entirely derid. The middleman in Auckland will not_toucli kauri gum, the chief reason being" the depression in America. To show how bad things are, h e stated that last week he bought at 70s which last year her oaid 120s for, and even at that reduced figure he cannot get an offer for it in Auckland. Another serious menace is the substitutes for "kauri glum in the shape of South American and South African gums and China oil. The manufacturers prefer kauri gum, but if they cannot get it at a price they used the substitutes. Referring to layers of unrecovered. gum at considerable depths, Mr. Dell said that there was no reason to doubt that gum, and. very good gum, mig|ht be found in low stratum, but he did not think it would pay to get it from great depths. It was not like gold. He very much doubted if there were 500 British diggers all told on the field, and he considered it only a matter of time when there will be none at. all. The British diggers did not work ■ systematically like the Austrians, and they simply cannot make a living as prices now are.