KAURI GUM DIGGING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20867, 8 May 1931, Page 14

KAURI GUM DIGGING.

ADVENT OF MACHINERY, SUCCESS OF STEAM SHOVELS. TRADITIONAL METHODS PASS. BT T. W. COLLINS. The kauri gum industry of the Auckland Province has been deprived of its traditional and laborious methods simultaneously with the decline .in exports and prices. Where gumdjggers were once able to obtain profitable quantities of goodquality gum simply by probing the ground with a primitive spear, mechanical steam shovels are now used to secure every particle. More often than not, the modern workers who use shovels have to bo content with gum of the poorest quality—"sooge mooge" it is called in the distinctive language of the gumfields. They are fortunate if they have as a return £2O a ton, though the average price for kauri gum to day is abovo £SO. The first exporters of kauri gum were the late Sir John Logan Campbell and his partner, Mr. Brown, whose name has been given to Brown's Island. During the best years of the industry the gum production reached 10,000 tons annually, and, in one year at the end of last century, it exceeded 11,000 tons. In recent years the production has decreased to abont 4000 tons a year. New Zealand has exported gum to the value of about £25,000,000.

Methods of Early Diggers, White gum, which is exceedingly difficult to obtain in largo quantities now, has been sold at prices ranging from £SO to £SOO a ton. Black gunr has reached £250 a ton, but, in chip and dust form, it has brought as low as £B, The digger of tradition had an his equipment a 6pade, a bucket, a spear, a scraping knife and a pikao, which was simply a sack cut in two and attached to the digger's shoulders in order to carry, the gum. Quite frequently th& digger's dwelling was made of sacks with tea-tree sticks for scantlings. For the door of his whare the digger nailed a sack to four tea-tree sticks and made the hinges from fencing wire. Most of tha first digging was done on shallow ground, which was easily worked. When such localities were exhausted, digging was begun on deeper, swampy areas, where the gum was generally poorer in quality, but more plentiful. Later still, when gum prices reached high levels, new methods of washing with machines were adopted. The lowest grade gums obtained in .that way could not be sold 25 years ago, but, from 1920 to 1925, they sometimes brought up to £SO a ton. Advantages of Science,

At that time many gum companies were formed, but cheap mechanical means to obtain gum were not practised. It was left to a practical gumdigger to find that light and mobile tractor shovels had great advantages. Two of these machines are now in operation and the cost of production has been reduced, to less than a quarter of that entailed by employing men to /iig with spades. The innovation has brought scientific application to the industry. The work is being carried out at Tomarata, about eight miles from the Wellsford railway station and 64 miles from the Birkenhead wharf.

On that particular field the gum layer is at depths ranging from Bft. to 12ft. Large drains have been made to a depth of about: 2ft. below the Jayer, and, from these drains, the shovels dig tr.enches from Bft. to 10ft. wide. Each machine is followed by a practical digger, who digs a small drain of perhaps 2ft. in width to enable water in the trench to be kept below the layer.

Land Left Suitable fo» Farming. When a shovel has completed a trench six expert diggers begin to remove the l.lyer of gum toward the main drains. Because of the drainage work the men are ablo to proceed without interference from water. The men undermine the layer of gum 3ft. each side of a trench, so that it becomes unnecessary for the shovel to dig in the ground 6ft. between trenches. Each tractor works three different sectors. While a tractor is working one section, the diggers are removing the layer from a second, and the third area is held in reserve. Filling is also carried out by the tractors and the land is left level and suitable for farming. An excellent road has been made through a swamp and motor trucks can carry a load of two tons of gum in all weather. The washing plant, which is on the rotary tube system, has a capacity of three and a-half tons each eight hours. The netf methods are expected to open a new era in the industry.