KAURI GUM DEPOSITS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1144, 15 April 1870, Page 5

KAURI GUM DEPOSITS.

i Fohmerly immense forests of kauri covered a large portion of the northern p.trt of the North Island, which, in course of time, have been largely consumed by fire, and the rosin or gum of the kauri, in a liquid state, descended to the roots of the trees, deep in the ground, where it has remained buried for ages, and is now dug up in large quantities. This article, as a varnish, is in great demand, and as valuable as copal, extreme fine quality fetching as high as £120 per ton in the London market. For some years the kauri gum trade has been one. of* the most important and prosperous of our local industries, and as a soutce of wealth little inferior lo a goldfield. A large native population is employed in digging gum, who are, from tbeir indigenous habits, pursuits, and local experience, very expert in perceiving where this undeveloped wealth is to be obtained, and are more dexterous than the settlers in digging it out of the ground. A royalty of £2 per ton is frequently given for permission to dig gum on private property, and large tracts of land of a very inferior description are now rendered valuable trom the quantity of gum whioh it is supposed to contain; The quantity taken out of the ground in some places is so large as to appear niarvellous, and some of the specimens are beautifully transparent and ambercoloured. Except to a very limited extent, and for a certain description of ornaments, the gum i_ not used for any purpose in the colony, and is only valuable as an article of export. The large quantity exported from time to time appears mysterious, but the sap or gum of the kauri descends in a liquid state under the bark ot the healthy living tree, and, penetrating to the roots underground, escapes from its original habitation in tbe tree, and is lodged in the earth, where it soon, by some process, undergoes a change, and is, from the action of the cold ground, condensed into gum. In this way a continual supply of gum is in progress of formation, which can never be exhausted until the forests cease to exist. It is, therefore, of great importance that forests of young kauri trees should be planted occasionally, in order to preserve a tree so valuable, not for its timber ouly, bufc for the annual supply of gum which it produces. It is noexaggeration to state that there are ten millions of kauri trees growing in a healthy condition in our forests, and each tree on an average will produce lib. weight of gum annually, whioh would be 5000 tons collectively, and, valued afc £50 per ton, would amount to £250,000. It would thus appear that, from this source alone, a quarter of a million sterling is added to the wealth of the colony every year, without any cost of production, anxiety, or labour on our part, and without in any way exhausting the source from whence such boundless wealth is derived. — TRxtract from " Historical Sketches in New Zealand."