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The gathering and sale of kauri gum in South Auckland
Alan La Roche
Describes the gathering and sale of kauri gum in South Auckland during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with particular reference to Howick, Whitford, Awhitu and the Papakura Valley.
About the author
Alan La Roche MBE, BDS, was the honorary director of Howick Historical Village from its opening in 1980 until 2007. His numerous publications include The History of Howick and Pakuranga (1991), An Introduction to the Howick Historical Village (1997), So Delightful a Parish: The Revd Vicesimus Lush at Howick, 1850-1865 (2002), and as co-author, The Royal New Zealand Fencibles, 1847-1952 (1997). In 2006 Alan was appointed by the Howick and Districts Historical Society as Howick Historian, and he is currently working on another major history of the area.
More information
Introduction
During the nineteenth century, the collection and sale of kauri gum provided a welcome supplementary income for farmers in the Howick and Whitford areas, who were struggling to make a living from farming on the poor clay soils. (Some farmers also burned charcoal and collected pig’s ear fungus for extra income.)
The farmers of Whitford always ploughed with a sack across the plough handles to hold pieces of gum that the plough uncovered. Mr Artie White of Whitford is said to have paid off his farm’s mortgage by gathering kauri gum. Farmers like the Reeves in Pakuranga also gathered kauri gum.[1]
Most of the gum was washed and sold to Auckland merchants. The families retained some of the finer pieces, however, which were scraped and polished, and sometimes carved into hearts, shamrocks or crosses. Some gum was heated and woven into kauri ‘hair’.[2]
The presence of gum indicates that there must have been kauri forest in the past in the area, mostly destroyed by fire or felling for timber. There were at one time substantial kauri trees in the head of the Mangemangeroa and Waikopua valleys, but these were milled for early settlers’ cottages.
The kauri gum gathered in the Howick and Whitford area was mostly gum from near the surface. More extensive deposits were discovered in other parts of South Auckland, and during the late nineteenth century significant gum fields developed in places such as the Papakura Valley and Awhitu.
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