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it is urged that a case has been made out for the imposition of an export duty, say of £3 per ton, by which means, if the money is spent strictly on the object intended, it is alleged that a metalled road might in a reasonable time be made from Warkworth to Awanui, with branches, also metalled, wherever most required. Lastly, it is alleged that not only would settlement be thus promoted, but that the tax, even if paid by the digger, would be refunded to him in the increased cheapness of carriage, by which the price paid for his stores would be less, and that received for his gum greater. But these statements and arguments are more or less called in question by those who are adverse to the tax. It is doubted whether the digger, supposing the tax to fall on him, will be recouped to the extent above supposed by the improvement in the roads. Many important and now almost impassable gum-tracks are for many miles not coincident with main county roads; and unless the funds were adequate to the maintenance of all these the benefit would be very incomplete. It is further objected that the tax would operate not only on gum belonging to the Crown, but also on that which is the property of private owners. It is also considered by them that, at all events, the first incidence of the tax will be borne by the digger, and that this is likely to have the effect of squeezing out of the industry, and throwing upon charitable aid, a number of the weaker and less efficient diggers who now barely make a living. Again, if, as the advocates of the tax think, the extra payment can be charged to the consumer in Europe or America, its opponents apprehend that the experiment may be injurious to the trade. They consider that the lower grades of kauri are likely to be forced out of the market, and, even with regard to the higher grades, they fear that any arbitrary addition to their price in the present state of the market might encourage the use of other gums, by stimulating invention to devise means of overcoming any difficulties in manipulating them, and so perhaps enabling them to dispute the supremacy of kauri. Such is the general tenor of the arguments on each side of the question of an export duty, and there we leave the matter for the present, reserving to a later stage an express indication of the degree to which we are prepared to concur in any recommendation to be made respecting it. The last mode of raising revenue from the gum industry that has to be mentioned is that of requiring every digger to take out an annual license to dig gum, for which a certain fee should be payable, in the same way as a miner's right is issued on goldfields. The mention of goldfields suggests an analogy between the gum-digger and the alluvial golddigger—an analogy which, to a great extent, is valid, but which must not be pushed too far. Both are to a great extent, nomadic; both are engaged in a calling which has the fascination of enabling them to be their own masters, and the further charm of involving the element of speculation and uncertainty. Both afford a market to the storekeeper, and to the settler if he has any produce to sell them, and both supply only a limited proportion of their numbers who themselves become permanent settlers. But the gold-digger finds his treasure so disposed in the ground that is possible for him to mark out for himself a moderate area and to confine himself to that until all the gold in it is taken out. This is a process which necessitates various appliances, and in which, and in the operations connected with it, there is not only room but necessity for systematic co-operation ; and often for a high degree of ingenuity and intelligence. But the gum-digger, having no need of such appliances, has not felt any need of co-operation, and the nature of his pursuit enables him to do a little digging in one place to-day and a mile off to-morrow, without ever marking out any claim as his own. The significance of these differences lies in the obvious difficulty which they present to any attempt to make regulations for controlling the ordinary working of the gumfields. A man who is so loose and unattached as the gum-digger, is clearly much less amenable to regulations than one who has something to forfeit in case of nonconformity—a claim, a water-race, a dam, and perhaps some expensive machinery. Besides the general difficulty of enforcing regulations against the gum-digger, as compared with the alluvial gold-miner, there occurs the further difficulty arising from the large area of gum-land which is in private hands. The question would have to be determined whether the Government could fairly demand a fee for a license to dig gum upon private lands—a license for which the digger may have already paid a fee to the owner of the land—or whether the license is to continue as at present, applicable to Crown lands only. It is more than questionable whether this resource will ever be found practically available for raising funds at all adequate to cope with the road difficulty. But it has been suggested, and strongly maintained, that the adoption of a license-system may be made conducive to a further end than the direct raising of funds. That end is to restrict within reasonable limits the number of diggers upon the gumfields, and by this means so to control the industy as to limit the supply so far as possible within the quantity required by the varnish trade ; in which case, it is said that much more satisfactory results would follow to everyone concerned—both gum-diggers, storekeepers, and merchants. This effect, however, could scarcely be attained by the mere requirement of a license, unless the payment were unduly high; and it has therefore been suggested that the license should be issued to no one unless he has either taken up land as a settler under some one of the existing systems of tenure, or has resided a certain time, say twelve months, in the colony. This question of limiting, by some interference of law or regulation, the number of diggers engaged in digging gum, has arisen apparently in the first place from the very general apprehension that the gumfields were going to be swamped by large numbers of Austrians from Dalmatia. We have made inquiries into this subject, and have found that the total number of these Austrians in all the gumfields north of Auckland is, according to the best information we have been able to obtain, about 514, and this number includes sixty-two who have arrived in the Kaipara district since our inquiry in those parts was concluded. But the question how many more are likely to come is one upon which we have been quite unable to obtain any definite information; and we can give no answer to it. But we think it probable that the number of Austrians who come here will be governed very much by what they learn by letters from their friends of the prospects that await them. A growing