AUSTRIAN GUMDIGGERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 64, 15 March 1916, Page 7

AUSTRIAN GUMDIGGERS.

jyEAFING A RICH HARVEST.

■SVHILE N T EW ZEALAXDERS FIGHT.

(By Telegraph. —Special to "Star.")

WELLINGTON, this day

t tnis aay. The Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stjut) < j, as returned to Wellington after a tourj j north of Auckland. t Keplving to a question, Sir Robert said many Austrians in the north were j of Slav descent, therefore unfavourable j-, to Austria; others, however, who were; J .iustrians, claimed to be Oaliuatians. j f "Gum." continued Sir Robert -Stout, \ £ "has s on - U P ' n P rice - l - Ine gonMeioan j : toid iiie he thought it most unfair tor. i Austrians to be allowed to tike advan-| s tajre of the increased value, and Ihtti our men who have gone to tha front j j should have our frumfields exploited in | their absence. tie thought that gam i , land 3 should be reserved for returned , soldiers. That is a matter that re-; ] quires very careful consideration. Of f course, once the gum is taken there is • \ no more to be got. There is no second | j crop. As the price ha 3 gone up 25 per] , cent and more m value the Austrians j are reaping the benefit, for men who ] ■have gone to the front cannot get the < benefit of the rise in price. 1 don't think it is an unreasonable suggestion that the Government should step in and prevent any more gum being taken. I It irould be wise to retain a consider- j able area of land for returned soldiers.! ; From what he could hear in many of: ' the districts he visited practically all j eligible men had offered themselves for ' ' active service. He was told that at i ! Enssell only one eligible man remained, and it was likely he also would go." GUM MERCHANTS* VIEWS. As it was somewhat of a surprise to learn that anyone was reaping a ich harvest from gum-digging during the progress of the war, a representative of tiie "Auckland Star' waited upon Ylr. J. F. Montague, of S. Winterbourne and j Lo., who said Sir Robert Stout may be i well versed in law, but it i≤ quite cvi- j dent that he knows nothing whatever I about the kauri gum biuiine=s and the j condition of the market for that article j at the present time. It is quite interesting to mc lv learn for the firat time, through Sir Robert Stout, that kauri gum had gone up 25 per tent. 1 was under the impression that the market had fallen heavily. It is quite true that for the past two or three months fair business has been done in gum, also that fair orders are offering now, but the unf >ctunate part of tne affair is that merchants find it impossible to get space tor shipments, even at horribly high freight rates. For one thing, the Vancouver boat refuses to take any cargo excepting for the Canadian Government. The effect of that upon the gum market has been to cause orders to be refused when \v'e are all naturally anxious to do business." ''As far as the question of reserving gum areas for returned soldiers, personally I ccc no objection to that course being adopted, provided the men really require the land. At the same time I always understood, that the Government had land for such purposes, without trenching on gum areas. Certainly at the present time neither •returned soldiers nor anybody else can do mu-eh with, gum wien it cannot be shipped away for want of space. Naturally J do not want to see prices of gum go down, but if gum cannot be exported prices are more likely to ease than- advance. To give you an idea of the position at the present time, 1 may mention that a good deal of gum that comes in is worth £22 to £25 per ton, but the freight rate is the same, irrespective of the value of the shipment, so that lowpriced gum could not be sent away and leave a margin of profit. The statement that there has been a rise of 25 per cent in the price of gum coming from a persoT of such standing a≤ Sir Robert Stout is likely to have a bad effect. 1 can assure you that it is only by the greatest care that country storekeepers will avoi'i serious losses." "To give you an idea of the riso in freiglitß, I may explain that before the •war we paid 37/B to London. >>ow the rate is 75/ per ton, and even at that figure no space ie available. To the Lrated States the rate has advanced from 50/ to 100/, via Vancouver. The freights went up £2 per ton last week. You can easily understand that if space were available, it would never do to pay £11 10/ to £12 10/ freight on the net "weight of gum, a lot of which is not worth more than £15 to £20 per ton. The Right Hon. W. F. iluseey promised to provide vessels for the export trade, but there is no sign of them yet." DALittATIAHS' SIDE OF THE QUESTION. Mr. G. L. Scansie, when asked hie ■views upon the question, remarked: — "In the present state it the gum market no one can be reaping a rich harvest for the simple reason t»iat more of the article is being sent in than can bo shipped away. I understand that the gum has to be followed down pretty deep now, and when the cost of food and clothing have been deducted, the men cannot have more than 5 per cent, profit at the prices no-w ruling. There is. however, one matter to which I should like to refer, namely, the use of the name 'Austrian' for the Dalmatian gumdiggers. I must admit there are some pure Austrians on the gumflolds, but the great majority are Dalmatians, a pure Slav race, whose sympathies are entirely with the Allie3. That has already been ehown by the eagerness of the men to enlist. I would like to know how these loyal Slavs, many of whom are now naturalised British subjects, are to live if they be blocked from digging glim. They are willing to fight for the Allirs. and I hope before long arrangements will be made for a number of them f .n join the Serbian army fit Corfu. I Wrrnv! recently from the London Slav Committee that my countrymen all over the world are waiting to take their plno-s alongside the Serbians. The m.»'ni«nt embraces North and South America. Pouth Africa, Australia, and New Z?aland.>'