42 R.A. Fo PENROSE, JR. 
which served to separate it from the next layer of gum formed 
from the next succeeding forest. In many gum fields, which were 
supposed to be exhausted when the top layer was worked out, the 
discovery of lower layers of gum has added fresh activity to the 
industry. 
Kauri gum mining, or “‘gumming”’ as it is often called, is gener- 
ally looked on as a rather poor occupation by the New Zealanders, 
Fic. 2—Kauri gum mining in New Zealand 
and is often resorted to by people out of employment, or by miners 
who have not been successful in locating gold, silver, or other more 
permanent mines, and have taken to gum mining to get the means 
of continuing their prospecting. In this way the industry has 
afforded many a poor man funds to bridge over times of distress. 
There is in parts of New Zealand quite a large Austrian population, 
and these people have often been active in the gum industry, at 
times making considerable profits from it. The native Maoris 
resort to gum mining at idle times or when their crops fail. Gum 
mining is a simple process, and requires but little equipment, so 
