The Woes of the Gumdigger.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4905, 21 March 1894, Page 1

The Woes of the Gumdigger.

An experienced gum-digger, writing in the Auokland Star, describes the lot of himself and his fellows as the reverse of a happy one :— I challenge, he says, all comers to chow me a calling, trade, profession, or occupation that suffers the hardships of the digger, and point out any other commodity that this country produces that is wasted like gum is through bad management* The digger's position stands thus : He has to work in all sorts of weather, through all aorta of country, both mentally and bodily, and as the gum is getting much scarcer, so is the mental strain becoming so great that, combined with the rough life he is compelled to lead, he iB driven into a semistate of lunacy, and after his hard day's struggle with Dame Nature to obtain his bit of gum he returns tired and exhausted to bia humble hovel, which consists of a tent, whare, burrow, cave or Crack in the earth that he has to seek a habitation in, and he has a happy privilege that no other working man has— that is to commence work again to Bcrape his gum (it should read to waste it), should he be lucky enough to obtain any. Perhaps it is not generally known that there are upwards of two hundred tons of real good marketable chips and dust wasted on these gumfields every month, and good white gum at that, this being a serious losb to the digger, and all this through bad management. Surely no sane individual will dare to dispute the right of the Government to Btep in and use its power to stop this enormous waste that id a disgrace to a civilised community. The remedy I propose to check this, is that all gum shall be received by the merchants and exporters from the digger, well washed and free from dirt. The merchant would thus receive all the gum that is taken from the ground, and in manipulating the same would be able to supply all the grades of gum, chips and dirt suitable for the London and New York markets, and the very lowest grades that might be unsuitable for shipment would be suitable for the new local industries that can and should be immediately started to meet the depression now set in. Look at the amouat of employment this would give in Auckland, over 600 tons per month. There is work for your old and young of both sexes —the lame and lazy. This gum could be scraped and Borted at the one time and thus stop thd picking of gum so much complained of by the merchants. . * * * As for the influx of Austrians on these gumfields the diggers cannot compete with_ them for they live on next to nothing. They are worse than Chinese, and there is another trouble springing up. I mean the Sydney and Melbourne deadbeats that are now arriving in shoals, these baing two-thirds of our boaated increase of population. They are already beginning to roam these country districts to the terror of the settlers and the sorrow of the storekeepers, and many of these men have been assisted over here by misleading advertisements. The special correspondent of the Canterbury Times, writing from Paris, distinctly states that the Continental varnish makers fail to understand why they are called on to pay from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds per ton for gum that is only valued at Bixty in Auokland, and that they mean to see into it. All speed to them. Now, the gum merchants of Auckland, in giving their evidence before the Commission, Bay these large profits are not at this end; therefore, I maintain that it is the duty of the Government, as stewards of this country, and managers of this great public estate, the gumfields, to inquire into it for the benefit of us all.