KAURI GUM

Gumland

The gumlands were generally unsuitable for farming after the diggers had finished. “Potholes” and trenches remained unfilled – “tailings” piled beside them – and the continual burning off of manuka and fern, left nothing but bare clay. Gorse, hakea, and other introduced weeds displaced the stunted manuka, and large areas were useless until modern machinery, lime, and suitable fertilisers were available for land development.

• KAURI GUM

• Maori Uses

• Early Export Trade

• Gum-digging

• Mining for Gum

• Gum from the Living Trees

• Gumland

• Market and Uses (1900–62)

Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.