THE WATTLE BARK HARVEST.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 77, 3 April 1899, Page 5

THE WATTLE BARK HARVEST.

♦i, St. W^amarino correspondent of the Waikato 'Argus' says: 'Wattle stripPing is now over for the season, and the bark pretty well all dry and under cover. Stripping operations have been carried %f«*^f .^son more extensively in this' sSwS&Kf" 11 fo* so»e years past, a fact^ ol*b£?i?-m? 0 "M? t0 the rlse n Price rl^l7s. __ ?£&^ gh there is still plenty,of room for improvement in this respect Messrs Stretton and Green are j Ust now finishing a contract for storing In the sheds, 75 tons orbark at Mr McLean'l Sf? totl *oni th? stripping having been carS2_L out Maoris, of whom about 40 r er!«_f_\ ploye2' the work not.commencing till December, by which time the season is well advanced. Messrs i Hawln and Son have taken about 20 tons dry bark »12 their plantation, and as they accomplished this without the employment of labour _ it is a very good record for two' pair of hands, seeing that the ordinary work of their farm has been similarly performed and in no way neglected. The properties of .Messrs Stretton and Green have also respectively contributed a. few tons to the total quantity of bark harvested m this district. I learn that about a hundred tons of.bark have been taken from Messrs Young's extensive plantation at Wairangi, and probably the State' Farm Avill have turned -out about t__i» same quantity. According to latest. quo* tations best chopped wattle bar^ is worth up to £8 per ton in Sydney, where sales, are regularly held; this price, however, id considerably higher than growers in the: Waikato obtain from the local. tanners, although our bark is said to be equal in quality to any grown elsewhere. It is also worthy of note that the wattle bark grown in this country is not nearly sufficient to meet the requirements of the Auckland tanners alone, to say nothing of the quantity used in other parts of the colony. Seeing, that so much bark has to be brought over from Australia, every year, it seems strange that there should, ba such a disparity in the prices of the locally grown and imported stuff when both are of equal quality. But the same may be said of a.good many other things produced in this country.' ■ , ;.