W. BURKE.]

35

C—l 2.

William Burke, of Waihopo, thirty years a Gum-digger from Auckland to the North Cape; married, with nine children. To Mr. Greville.] He endorsed previous witnesses' evidence in regard to £2 per week being the average earnings of an industrious worker, week in and week out all the year round. He considered any small areas in the Houhora Reserve that were found to be non-gum-bearing might be cut up into small areas for the resident gum-diggers to settle on. Ihe areas should be small, as the climate was good, and three crops of potatoes could be grown in the year. Tomatoes could also be grown very readily. To Mr. Stafford.] He considered diggers must burn the scrub to a certain extent, and they should be restricted only during the very dry months of the year. Samuel Wells, married, with eight children, and a Digger of sixteen years' experience. To Mr. Greville.] He obtained a fairly good living on the Houhora field, which he considered should be retained for the diggers. The lower end, consisting of raupo swamp, might be dealt with for settlement purposes, as it contained no gum, and was well suited for cultivation if drained. He was of opinion that Ngatumaroki Reserve, which he knew, was non-gum-bearing. Thomas Collins, married, with one child, and a resident at Houhora for seventeen years. To Mr. Greville.] He considered the Houhora Reserve should be retained solely for gumdigging. He estimated there were a thousand persons resident and digging on the Houhora Reserve at the present time. George Akast, married, with a family of six children. To Mr. Greville.] He had been in turn a storekeeper, gum-buyer, and gum-digger for over sixteen years. He thought the firing of vegetation should be stopped altogether for certain months of the year, as thousands of pounds' worth of gum were destroyed every year by indiscriminate firing as at present.

Waiharera, Friday, 3rd April, 1914. Richard Ellerry, of Waiharera, Gum-digger, and a single man. To Mr. Greville.] He had had six years' experience as a gum-digger, and knew the Stony Cross end of the reserve to be very good gum land. On the Waiharera side, towards the coast, there was a big strip of gum-bearing country that should be left for the diggers. He knew Bunkall's Flat, and did not think it carried more than twenty-five diggers at the present time. Within a five-mile radius of Waiharera there would be some hundreds of diggers all the year round. An industrious digger would average from £2 10s. to £3 per week throughout the year. He could show one flat where Austrians had obtained fifteen hundred sacks of gum within three months, and the land was considered to have been all dug over. To Mr. Stafford.] So far as firing the gum reserves was concerned, there were some swamps that could not be dug unless cleaned up by tire, and he had not personally seen much damage resulting from fires. Joseph Dudgeon, of Waiharera, Gum-digger, and unmarried. To Mr. Greville.] He had been a gum-digger for twenty-five years. The swamp between Rio and Stony Creek contained little gum, in his opinion. Ihere was a portion of it very deep and known as a " hooking-ground " which might be rich in gum, and should be withheld for some years, as ground to that depth had not been thoroughly tried yet. He believed the Opoe Reserve to be more or less gum-bearing, and at present carrying from three to four hundred men, who were making a fairly good living. He knew of some swamps that could be dug on the face, but in some instances it was impossible owing to the presence of timber and logs. He considered gum-digging as profitable now as it was twenty years ago, owing to the better prices obtained. To Mr. Stewart.] So far as firing the swamps was concerned, it could not be altogether stopped, but diggers ought to know the nature of the swamps before burning. He quite understood the present regulations about gum lands under the Kauri-gum Industry Act, but did not think any man could be a digger and a farmer at the same time. Patrick Shine, of Waiharera, Gum-digger, with sixteen years' experience. To Mr. Greville.] He knew the Opoe Gum Reserve very well, and considered that the Selwyn Swamp of about 350 acres should be lifted from the reservation and opened for settlement. He gave it a good testing last winter, and considered it to be non-gum-bearing. The Rio raupo swamp was gum-bearing in parts, and should be retained for that purpose, though until drained it was useless to diggers. No private individual could undertake the drainage, which he considered should be taken in hand by the Government, and then, when dug out, be opened for farming. So far as firing the swamps was concerned, he considered that in the case of deep swamps it assisted the digger by burning 2 ft. or 3 ft. into the peat and bringing the gum nearer the surface. Very few swamps could be burned right down to the gum, and he did not think any action should be taken in regard to stopping fires by diggers. To Mr. Stewart.] He knew of places in the district where the sand had encroached a mile since he had come into the district, and could point out a spot now covered with sand where there used to be a lake; this was near Kaikino.