**Uses of Kauri Gum:**
– Used by Maori for chewing gum, fire-starters, torches, and tattoo pigment.
– Crafted into jewelry, keepsakes, and decorative items.
– Commercially used in varnish production and exported to London and America.
– Key ingredient in oil varnishes, paints, and linoleum manufacturing.
– Auckland’s main export in the late 19th century, with peak exports in 1899 reaching 11,116 tons valued at £600,000.
**Appearance and Sources of Kauri Gum:**
– Varied in color from chalky-white to black, with pale gold being the most prized.
– Ranged in size from small nuggets to rare ones weighing half a hundredweight.
– Fossilized resin similar to amber, dating back a few thousand years.
– Found in swamps (small nuggets) and hillsides (larger lumps).
– Found in gumfields mainly in Northland, Coromandel, and Auckland.
**Gum-digging Industry:**
– Gum-diggers extracted kauri gum for varnish production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
– Challenging and poorly paid work attracting Maori and European settlers.
– Kauri Gum Industry Act of 1898 reserved gum-grounds for British subjects.
– Significant income source with 20,000 people engaged in Northland by the 1890s.
– Auckland families participated, causing issues for local councils.
**Gum Extraction Methods:**
– Extracted using gum-spears and skeltons, with swamp digging requiring longer spears and fire clearing of scrub.
– Holes dug up to 12m deep in hills and swamps, with some wetlands drained for easier excavation.
– Bush gum obtained by cutting kauri tree bark, banned in state forests in 1905.
– Gum chips used for linoleum production, retrieved through washing and sieving.
– Gum merchants bought gum from diggers, transported it to Auckland for export, employing workers to grade and pack the gum.
**Additional Information:**
– Related Topics: Kauri Museum, Dammar gum, Northland temperate kauri forests.
– References and Citations from various sources.
– Literature and External Links for further exploration.
Kauri gum is resin from kauri trees (Agathis australis), which historically had several important industrial uses. It can also be used to make crafts such as jewellery. Kauri forests once covered much of the North Island of New Zealand, before climate change caused the forests to retreat, causing several areas to revert to sand dunes, scrubs, and swamps. Even afterwards, ancient kauri fields and the remaining forests continued to provide a source for the gum. Between 1820 and 1900, over 90% of Kauri forests were logged or burnt by Europeans.
Kauri gum forms when resin from kauri trees leaks out through fractures or cracks in the bark, hardening upon exposure to air. Lumps commonly fall to the ground and can be covered with soil and forest litter, eventually fossilising. Other lumps form as branches forked or trees are damaged, releasing the resin.