KAURI GUM INDUSTRY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 691, 16 December 1909, Page 10

KAURI GUM INDUSTRY.

COMPULSORY GRADING RECOMMENDED. ,A' report.by Mr. J. G., Gow on tho kauri gum industry-has. been laid'on the table ;:ol the House of Representatives. .... In .re g'ard to 'the method of disposing of gum; Mr Gow states that ho finds evidence to sunbbfl the suggestion that tticre, is a ring or an understanding between the merchants- and; th< storekeepers to force tho diggers to sell, to the 'latter. ; - - ,;• ■ ' ..-.',' "The most important point,; to my mind,' says Mi'. Gow, "in connection with the'kauri gum industry, is the lack of uniform grading The want of'such a system is responsible-foi the multiplicity and the fluctuation of prices the dissatisfaction and uncertainty among Iht British and American buyers, and also for th< weakening of the average price of--samples oi Now Zealand gum. I consider that the adop Hon of a system of compulsory grading of-al ,gum before it leaves the Dominion is tho ohiel 'remedy- for most of the evils which attach tc tho industry at present." "The Auckland mer chants," 'he < goes on- to say, "have a ven strong objection to. grading, but I am con" yinced that a standard system would place th< industry on a sound business. footing.;: I can not too. strongly emphasise tho fact that it. ii not only desirable from every point of view but-absolutely vital to the industry that th< .Government should step in and • standard's ;the,industry by standardising the gum. ,j ; would 'recommend that the Government shbu'le 'employ a grader in-Auckland to inspect thi gum before it is shipped to. Great Britain :and that a'grader be stationed in ■ London IThe latter grader would have to, watch tha nothing but pure kauri gum was sold at th< auctions as kauri gum. There should be i grader in New York also." ' Mr. Gow states .he has no doub but that there exists in • Londoi a kauri gum ring, and that this Ting has beei in existence for several-years. • The report "o the High Commissioner is looked upon as' u>e less by the majority of tho. storekeepers am diggers. Mr. Gow recommended, thai in thi event of the Government not cstablishim standard grades an export dutv of, say, up t< ,£lO a ton be imposed on all unsorted' gun over a value of JMO per ton.