THR GUM INDUSTRY: GIVE THE DIGGERS THE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9444, 26 February 1894, Page 6

THR GUM INDUSTRY: GIVE THE DIGGERS THE LAND.

On the above subject), Mr. C. P. W. Longdill, Ruatangata, writes as follows:— The 'tax,'in the shape of a license, now being imposed upon gumdiggers by the Whangarei County Council appears to me to be the most objectionable method that could have been devised for compelling the gum industry to do its share towards the maintenance of the county roads along which it is carted. If this is a result of the Gum Commission, 1 think nothing would have been lost to the country had it never 'sat. It seems most remarkable that during all the years when gum was so plentiful that men could get a sack in a day, and also when selling for such a price that a good man could make from £3 to £5 per week gumdigging, diggers did not require a license, and that now when the fields are getting worked out, and at a time when kauri gum is almost a drug in the market, and consequently diggers are able to make little more than a bare living, they are called upon to pay 5s per annum for a license to dig, or, in default, a fine of £20 or one month's imprisonment. And though gumdiggers are nob a very " hardfisted " lob, and the license comparatively light, yet they resent the measure as unjust. Yet it seems perfectly fair that the gum industry should contribute something, in fact a substantial amount, towards the maintenance of roads in the gum districts. But, the present tax . appears to have been imposed from an idea that the guradigger should be placed on tho same footing as, the gold miner, and I this is the point I take strong exception to, for I will endeavour to show that between < the two industries there is a considerable difference. I

Gold is a commodity, which is produced in many paris of the world, and its value is nob affected by demand in the same way as gum (gold not being a consumable article), neither could its value be much affected by an increase or decrease of production in New Zealand. Moreover, all that is produced in New Zealand is purchased at a fixod rate in the colony, so that it would really make very little or no difference whether a tax was levied on the amount of gold purchased by the banks, or directly on miners, in the shape of a license; in either case, the miner would pay the tax, the only difference between the two methods being that in the former case the man who made the most would pay the most, and in the latter all would contribute alike. Kauri gum is a commodity of which the Auckland district of New Zealand holds an entire monopoly of the world's supply. And, therefore, upon the amount New Zealand produces to meet the demand, depends the value. Almost all the kauri gum exported is bought, packed, and shipped on commission for varnish firms, chiefly in America, and occasionally for England, and the price paid for the gum entirely depends on the amount and urgency of orders recoived by agents in New Zealand and therefore it is clear that if a tax was imposed on all gum exported, this tax would be paid, not by the diggers, as the license is, or gum merchants, bub by the consumers in America and England. It is now generally recognised that the gum industry has reached a stage where the remaining store requires to be husbanded, and to be made use of in settling the country ; and what I would like to suggest is, that instead of fruitless attempts being made to limit production by a license fee, no digger be allowed to dig upon Crown lands unless he is willing to accept as a free gift a section of land on the gumfield of not more than, say 100 acres, and bind himself to improve it attherate of 3s per acre per annum, until a guinea per acre has been expended for every acre he selects, each man being allowed to make his own selection on payment of survey fees, and to be exempt from all land taxation for a certain number of years. I believe if this scheme was brought into operation a large number of gumdiggers would make selections, and turn into homesteads land which with the exception of the gum they contain, are now quite worthless, and unless improved while there is gum in the ground to pay for cultivation, are likely to remain for very many, years in an unproductive condition.

At present the gum is dug for, here, there, and any where, and the same ground gone over again and again, that which is dug being left to become again overgrown with scrub audi fern. Whereas if every man had a legal right to a block of land on the gumfields, he would dig upon his own land, taking everything before him, and what he dug he would make into a garden, or plant with fruit trees or with some of the hardier grasses, such as Eragrostis bownii, and rat- tail, etc., or with the new fodder plant, Lathyrus sylvestris ; and if a good amount of bonedust or other manure was put on the ground, when his grass seeded, he could expect a crop of seed which would well repay him for labour expended. By and by when he got a fence up, he could get a few cows,%nd a horse, make a good-sized orchard, &c. And if a good area was plan tod out with black wattles, which do not spread like the common wattle, they would pay him well, as the bark is always in demand for tanning, and the timber would dome in for firewood. And in many, other ways ho,might make the* land a means of adding to his income, and of developing a taste for farming.; The scheme suggested, if brought into operation, would also be a far more wholesome method of checking drinking among gumdiggers than prohibition, for all thosb who tit present possess a piece of land appear to find far more pleasure in investing their earnings in their sections, let the land be ever so poor, than running to the nearest public house with it. Another effectual method of controlling the production of gum to actual requirements would be to place a duty of, say, 100 per cent, on all kauri gum exported in the crude state, but to allow varnish to be exported free. This would probably lead to a number of American varnish firms setting up business in New Zealand, and thus add to our local industries. And the varnish being manufactured in New Zealand would assure its being pure and unadulterated with inferior gums, and thus enable it to command a higher price. However, it is probably too late in the day to bring about such a reform as this, but had it been done many years ago New Zealand would have reaped far more benefit from her gumfields than she has.