Gumland Value Falls From £5OOO To £l5O

Northern Advocate, 13 July 1949, Page 7

Gumland Value Falls From £SOOO To £l5O

KAITAIA, Wed. (Sp.).—Echoes of the 1921 boom in Far North kauri gum lands were heard yesterday when the North Auckland Land Valuation Committee considered an application for the sale of 107 acres at Kaimaumau.

Evidence was given that the property had been purchased by a kauri-gum syndicate in 1921 for £SOOO, but was worked for only 18 months by machinery before operations were abandoned when gum prices dropped

Consent to the sale, which was described as part of the wind-up of an estate, was sought at' £375. Crown valuation was only £l3O. Anthony Hobolth. present caretaker on the property, jsaid the land had lain idle for 22 years.

commented Mr Burton. Ross Mulligan said that the Crown valuation was based on the almost wholly unimproved state of the property. It would, he said, be suitable for farming after development, but neighbouring land had been valued at only 10/- per acre. John Nicholas Lupis. gum-digger, of Waiharara, said that he had over 30 years’ experience in the locality. Although he assessed the value of kauri gum on the land at £BOO, he considered it uneconomic to work on the purchase price sought. A large number of similar groups had purchased Far North land at high, prices at that period, said the chairman.

Only seven or eight acres had been worked by the syndicate, and witness considered that the gum-bearing value was higher than that of nearby Crown land kauri gum reserves, which had been consistently dug over. To the Crown representative (Mr M. A. Shanahan) witness said the average depth of gum was about 4ft 6in„ some was suitable for machine washing. "DIED NUBSING IT” Answering a question by the chairman, witness said that members of the syndichte owning the property had been married men. who had not bothered to seek a return for their investment. •'Some of them died nursing it,"

Several groups had crashed because of expensive machinery purchased to work land on which gum was not present, witness agreed. Consent In the sale was granted at. £l5O.