KAURI GUM INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 15, 19 January 1898, Page 4

KAURI GUM INDUSTRY.

THE ROYAL COMMISSION

(By Telegraph—Own Correspondent)

DARGAVILLE, this day.

Mr Ellis, in his evidence before the Kauri Gum Commission, endorsed his evidence given before the Commission in 1893. He said their grievances were two, the influx of aliens and the system of trading on private gumfields. He thought owners of private fields encouraged Austrians, as they can buy their gum cheaper. Inspectors of weights should visit the fields frequently. He found a storekeeper once lOlbs wrong in a sack averaging one hundredweight and a half. It was 3£ years since Inspector Black went around, when a number of storekeepers were convicted. Diggers still suffered under the system of receiving truck in payment for gum. They couldnever prove as a fact that Austrians came out under contract. Diggers were paying from 4d to 6<l per lb for onions, while settlers were prepared to sell to them at l^d, which the diggers were not allowed to buy, being liable to dismissal if they did so. There was great difference of opinion between what diggers call ordinary gum and what is ordinary gum on the Auckland market. Diggers are hooking gum out of a swamp 20ft deep. The Commission adjourned till to-morrow, when it will meet at Waima aud Opanake.