KAURI GUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1938, Page 4

KAURI GUM.

INCREASED SUPPLIES TO HAND. .MOKE ACTIVE DEMAND. Returns have now been compiled relating to tile quantity of kauri gum arriving in the eity during Septeniher and October, "hen lti2 tons ami 212 tons respectively caiiie tc> hand. This compares with 141 tons and 180 tons received during the corresponding months of last year, and confirms the expectation that tiie dry spring would enable the diggers to bring their gum into the right condition for the market. Even this increase only raises the quantity for the 10 months to 1683 tons, compared with 17fM3 tons during the first lo months of last year, but it is expected that the slight shoi tage will be made good by the end of the year, for more diggers are now actively engaged in the Holds. At the same time it may be suggested that the official returns do not now necessarily represent the exact quantity that conies into the city, for eve, y year the improved means of transpott enable art increased number of small lots to airive by motor lorry or oil launch, and there is no certainty that these are all duly noted. The position was different when the only way to get the gum from the fields to the city was by rail or steamer. During the 10 months 182S tons went away, compared with 2612 tons exported during the corresponding period of last year, and 2385 in the first 10 months of 1936. During the past, few weeks a decided improvement in the overseas demand has set in. and it will probably be found that November and December will show a sharp increase in the exports, compared with last year. It is quite possible that November returns may not be very startling. for a good deal that was put aboard, or prepared for being shipped, was delayed by the strike, and as these are only leturned tor the day on which the vessel leaves the final port, they will swell the December exports. I here seems to Tic an Impression in some quarters that kauri gum is nearing the (iid of its hectic life, but tile best evidence suggests that there are immense quantities still to be unearthed, and that thousands of tons of this unique produce are still to find their way into Auckland, incidentally providing a good living, even if apparently precarious, to a large company of independent men who like the open life on the fields, with the additional inducement that at any time they may come across a valuable patch.