£2000 AN ACRE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19156, 12 November 1927, Page 16

£2OOO AN ACRE.

RICH GUMFIELD. i DISCOVERY IN NORTH AUCK- j LAND. • j [THE Pfe-ESS Special Sendee.] AUCKLAND, November 11. The discovery of a new Kauri gumfield, from which the yield per acre will, according to experts, be as great as that from any goldmine, is reported from Ahipara Hill.* The Lands Department recently opened an area of land at Ahipara Hill for the purposes of \providing work for unemployed men. The land was let to gumdiggers in three-acre lots, and Mr P. Sulenta says that land in adjoining. sections to be balloted for will yield gum to the value of £IOOO per half aero. "That," said Mr Sulenta, "will beat any goltfneld in Australia or New Zealand." The trouble about the place is that there is difficulty in getting an adequate water supply, and another difliculty is that there is no properly-defined road or formed road to it, and diggers have to cross some Native property when taking machinery on the field. It is the custom for the Natives to levy a toll of varying amounts, and sums of £lO, £ls, iind up to £2O have been collected from diggers who have been taking gum-washing machinery on to the field. The Government draws a royalty of 10 per cent, on all gum won, and from the yield it will be seen that this means a considerable revenue for the State. The Kaitaia • Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution that the Minister for Lands be asked to make .arrangement's with the Public Works Department to have a road constrncted to the Beld, and also to arrange for a supply of water.