3.7 Research has to depend upon bits of anecdotal information and upon the snapshots taken every five years by the census. But the census does not include Maori in those occupational returns which are of some utility in investigating the employment of Pakeha. Further, while the mainstream census (ie. of the population designated `European') is often accompanied by extensive analysis, the Maori census is normally no more than bare series of tables set out in a brief appendix, together with some very general comments from the enumerators. It is worth emphasising that the two main sources of information on 'the world of work', each an agency of government, do not consider Maori to be significant enough to merit more than a series of brief and general remarks.
3.8 In broad terms, the potential sources of Maori employment may be readily identified—gum digging, public works, drainage schemes, farm labouring including seasonal work, and (probably) casual labouring work in general. These are also the ways in which the humbler elements of the rural Pakeha population made, or sought to make, a living. That fact in itself, given the disproportion of the two populations and the existence of continuing and at times high unemployment in the region, meant that Maori job seekers experienced a good deal of competition.
The regional labour market
3.9 This examination of the labour market in Hauraki is derived from the fragmentary comments of local officials in the annual reports of the Labour Department. In 1893 it is reported from Auckland that gum exports were increasing and the number of men kept in work in this way was growing. But in the following year the fragility of this industry became evident; a sudden fall in price had 'straitened the gum-diggers of Auckland and the northern fields' (AJHR 1893 HE), 1894 F16). The first report from Thames in 1897 noted that a depression in mining had thrown 'a great number of men out of employment', that the building trade was slackening and that the outlook for the coming winter was bad (AJHR 1897 (s2) H6). A year later, many miners were leaving the district, though railway works (the Thames-Paeroa line) and road works were providing employment for some ex-miners. But prospects for the future were poor because 'very few miners are working'. Gum digging did not affect the labour market because it was conducted 'principally by Maoris' on the eastern coast—an indication that the labour force which concerned the inspector was a Pakeha one (AJHR 1898 H6).
3.10 There are no further reports from Thames until 19oz. The depression in gold mining which had lasted for some years was continuing, but timber milling, bush work, fishing, road works and flax milling were doing better (AJHR 1902 HD. Maori were involved in flax milling to some extent, but it was a rather marginal industry (BAAA 1001 596a; Thames Advertiser, 6 Oct 1893).A report of 1905 (for the Auckland district as a whole) indicated that a 'very large drop in the price of kauri-gum' had caused many to leave the gumfields and seek work elsewhere (AJHR 1905 HID. Again with reference to the
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