KAURI GUM INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16040, 5 October 1915, Page 9

KAURI GUM INDUSTRY.

N7ERESTING POSSIBILITY.

CONTROL BY TILE STATE.

GOVERNMENT'S NEW BILL.

[BT TELEGRAPH.SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Monday. An* interesting revew of the present position and prospect* of the kauri gum industry was made to-night by the Prime Minister, when speaking on the second reading of the Kauri Gum Industry Amendment Bill, the provisions of which have already been explained. Mr. Massey described the position of the industry when the outbreak of war deprived the diggers of their market, and the operations of the men now employed by the Government, who are digging over the face of large areas of gum-bearing swamp lands and preparing them for agriculture. The land is mostly Crown land and the gum thus recovered is sufficient to pay the cost of labour. Nearly all the gumbearing lands were Crown lands, continued the Prime Minister, and the extended powers given the Government under the Bill were really a step towards the State taking complete control of the industry. It had given New Zealand £20,000,000 in the past, and it still had great possibilities. The Government had already bought large quantities of gum from the diggers, and now proposed to send a man abroad to sell itin America and, perhaps, Japan. Mr. Massey added that the discovery that the kauri gum swamps of the North would return 30 gallons of oil to the ton of peat suggested the possibility that the industry could enter upon a ter mof prosperity such as it had never known. The Bill would give the Government power to lease not more than 3000 acres to per sons wishing to obtain this oil. Thousands of pounds had been lost because careless persons in the past had set fire to the peat in kauri gum swamps, and the Bill provided substantial penalties to prevent that sort of thing. The Bill was warmly 'Supported bv the Northern members, -who complimented the Government on what had alreadv been done in assisting the industry. Messrs. Rhodes, Coates and Harris strongly urged that grading on gum be carried out in a more efficient and economical manner. Mr. Coates also asked that a special department should be created to deal with kauri gum, instead of leaving tbf business to the Lands Department, as at present.