Times were hard in the 1880s, when men came in their thousands to the gumfields of New Zealand's Northland to find work. Their story is told in Gum Digging: Romantic History or Living Hell? This article considers what the experience of those miners, and others in later eras of scarcity, taught about surviving recession.
Working Men and Community in Extractive Industries
The Long Depression in the last quarter of the 19th century struck around the world. Unemployment rates were high, businesses failed and social conflict rose. David O Whitten of Auburn University describes the Depression of 1893 in the United States as a "watershed event" in that country's history.
Sir Alfred Reed, in his book The Kauri Gumdiggers (Auckland: The Bush Press of New Zealand, 2006) comments that in New Zealand, the 1880s recession was in many ways worse than the Depression of the 1930s, in that there was no social security net. He recalls the sack of bread that would sustain four gumdiggers for a week, as they searched for kauri treasure while squatting on undeveloped Crown land.
Nevertheless, it was still possible for a penniless young man to make a start on the gumfields. Reed observes that storekeepers would often provide "grubstakes"--credit for the items a newcomer would need. These included a spade, a spear, a billy for boiling tea and a frypan, a couple of sacks for shelter and some food. Once in the fields, the novice could rely on getting tips from more experienced miners on where to look, how to dig and how to prepare the gum for market.
Gum Mining and Farming
When gum was scarce or prices poor, many diggers would supplement their income by scrub-cutting or road-building. Those with families might aspire to acquiring a piece of land, which they would develop through money earned from gum-digging and other activities.Reed also tells of more established settlers allowing diggers to "prospect" on their land in exchange for royalties. The farmer might require that the gum worker clear the land and stack the timber--less altruistic than the grub-staking shopkeeper, but an example of economic activities that were in some respect mutually beneficial.
Kauri Gum and Globalisation
The majestic kauri tree and its resin or gum had many uses in the pre-European Maori economy. The trees were crafted into huge waka or ocean-going vessels. The resin was used as chewing gum, and as insecticide to prevent caterpillars from ravaging the kumara crop. Reed observes that the distinctive blue-green tint of traditional Maori tattoos (te moko) came from burning kauri gum beneath sheets of green bark and then mixing it with oil.
Once the gum was commodified on the global market as an ingredient in varnish, it became subject to price fluctuations resulting from international economic and political events. Prices diggers received for kauri gum depended not only on quality, grade, weight and presentation, but on terms of trade. Even in good times, Reed notes, there was more price fluctuation for kauri gum than for gold.
Government Intervention and Employment
With kauri gum an important New Zealand export in the early years of the 20th century, government became significantly involved in the industry. Gumfields were monitored so that when they were "worked out", they might become available for settlement. During the First World War, when trade in the commodity effectively stopped, the Government stockpiled, found work for unemployed diggers on Crown land and sought to exploit new markets (chiefly in the United States before that country entered the war). In the 1930s Great Depression, some unemployed men were sent to the gumfields for work. By this point, however, gum was becoming scarce.
Technology "Fixes" to Save an Industry
As policy makers and corporations tend to do today with declining industries, government and industry sought to extend the life of the kauri gum trade, even when the resin had almost been mined out and was being replaced in the varnish industry by synthetics. Reed tells of sluicing efforts to separate low-grade gum chips and dust from dirt and vegetation; as well as efforts to dredge swamps using old gold dredges, and to sand-blast gum. The Department of Industrial and Scientific Research tried to find a scientific way to purify inferior grades, and there were even stories of kauri gum from peat swamps being tested for use on automobiles.
None of these efforts were successful enough to return the gum industry to its status as an important source of employment for people in difficult times. As the international economy moved to manufacturing and services, and with increasing focus on sustainable economic activity, workers and communities were obliged to find new ways to weather recession.
Brenda Ann Burke - A writer, and recently a beachcomber, Brenda was born in Canada before moving to Wellington, New Zealand. She has now made a big move to ...
