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KAURI ‘* GUM. 
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death. Though this bleeding. unless it is core Sonar BY, ring “barking, 
does not usually kill the tree, it certainly poe gsi 1e ie r and 
affects the growth of the tree. Just what mischief 1t does depends on 
r rit ited. 
Ore pega to injure the timber, comes the question how long 
before felling can the tapping be done without danger to the timber ? 
The Kauri Timber Company have recently given out an extensive contract 
for Kauri-bleeding to be done within the year preceding the cutting, I 
hear, too, of gemmage @ mort being practised in some good Kauri 
forest left at Paramatau, on the east coast. The forest there has been 
sold. and the miller has let the bleeding-rights before he fells for milling. 
Aveiiude of Land Commissioner, Auckland.—There can be no doubt 
that until a Forest Department is organized, and the W alpoua and other 
forests come to be in charge of trained foresters, the Commissioner and 
the Lands Department, Auckland, are right in setting their faces like 
steel against any more promiscuous ‘‘ gum-bleeding.’ 
‘Gum-bleeding ’’ is interdicted under the present Forest Regulations, 
Yield of ‘* Gum.’ 
I have heard of one Kauri forest with 30 million sup. ft. of Kauri 
with the “‘gum-bleeding’”’ rights to crown and branches let at only 
£1,000 yearly. I have heard of another forest where similar bleeding- 
rights for a year before felling were let at not more than 1 per cent. 
of the value of the timber: and even this partly because the lessee 
would act as a Forest Ranger and keep out illicit ‘‘ gum-bleeders.”’ 
Naturally the profits of ‘‘ gum-bleeding ’” confined to crown and 
branches must be small. That it should be profitable otherwise is shown 
by the eagerness of the illicit ‘‘ gum-bleeder’’ to get at the trees and 
take his harvest. The profits would be greater still in an organized 
forest, easy to get about in, with roads and paths but little undergrowth, 
and with a settled population, where women and children (greatly to 
their health and well-being) could collect the resin, as they do in France, 
and as Ranger Maxwell’s children do now at Waipoua. 
The resin-yielding of Kauri varies more than that of Maritime-pine 
in France. Some trees are dry—they may be hacked all round and give 
no resin; others pour forth as soon as they are touched. The subject 
requires investigation by scientifically trained foresters. 
Kauri trees are estimated to yield from 10]b. to 50 1b. each yearly 
of bled ‘‘gum,’’ and 3lb. or 41b. of naturally exuded ‘‘gum.’’ This 
18 double or treble the yield, as appears below, of the Indian Chir-pine, 
which 1s now being systematically tapped by the Indian Forest Depart- 
ment with increasingly successful results. 
‘* Bled Gum.’’ 
The total export of ‘* bled gum ’’ at present is, I understand, only 
about £5,000 worth. Apparently the resin-tapping of Kauri is an 
industry capable of great development. I have the statement of a “‘ guim- 
bleeder,’* confirmed by a ‘‘ climber,” through a reliable source, that 
ea can average £5 worth of ‘‘gum’”’ per year per tree, with trees 
eS ying. a year. This would be for largish trees worth some £30 
each ior timber, Thus the value of the ‘ gum ’’ would be equal to the 
value of the timber in six years, supposing that it were advisable to 
Continue the bleeding for six years without a period of rest. 
