KAURI GUM TRADE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12353, 25 January 1926, Page 6

KAURI GUM TRADE

WORST SLUMP IN ITS HISTORY LARGE STOCKS HELD IN STORES DIGGERS LEAVING FIELDS t ' ~ (By Telegraph'.—Special to “Times.”) AUCKLAND, January 23. The years 1925 and 1926 will always be remembered in the kauri gum trade as those in which the Government’s control proposals came- to a head. The gum merchants have always strenuously opposed control, and they still cherish hopes that when the Minister for Lands, the Hon, A. D. McLeod, visits Auckland early next month, they will convince him that the Kauri Gum, Control Act of last session ought not to be put into force. The year just closed was the fourth of a series which covers probably this worst slump in the history of the trade. Although shipments showed a small increase, their value was less than that of 1924, and production, according to. some authorities, showed a considerable decrease. The largo stocks held in Auckland from the boom period of some years ago were not reduced to any extent. The following table shows the shipments for the past four

Shipments to” Great Britain and the United States, the two largest importing countries, were as follow:. Great Britain. —1922, 1824 tons; 1923, 2444 tons; 1924, 2162 tons; 1925, 2358 tons. United States.—l 922, 4191 tons; 1923 3909 tons; 1924, 2601 tons; 1925, 2622 tons.

The quantities of gum reoeived into store in Auckland for the past six yqprs were:—l92o, 5653 tons; 1921, 4331 tons; 1922, 7003 tons; 1923, 6501 tons; 1924, 5434 tons; 1925, 5069 .tons. That the store figures are a gauge of the production in the past two or thqee years appears doubtful. It is stated that many diggers who were financially able to do so have been holding gum on the fields, in the hope of a rise, and that a part at least of the gum sent to Auckland last year had been dug a considerable time before, and came into the market because its owners were leaving the fields. One man with a knowledge of the conditions in North Auckland stated that on the fields where, a few years ago, hundreds of diggers could he found, they were now numbered by tens.

years: — Quantity. Value. Year. Tons. £ 1922 6391 563.270 1923 . 6398 598,222 1924 3261. 443,576 1923 5398 415,722