THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

relevant information and some findings which appear to relate to the gumfields as a whole. The southern fields extended from the peninsula south and west of the Hauraki region into the Bay of Plenty and Waikato. The number of Maori at work on this field in 1893 may be estimated at around 325 from figures given by the Royal Commission on the gum industry (AJHR 1893 H24). The Commission reported that there were 130 `equivalent adult males' working full-time—ie. two-fifths of the numerical total reduced to take into account part-time work and the work of women and children. The same formula was applied to 'settlers who dig' (ie. not including full-time Pakeha gum diggers) for whom the numerical total would be just under 16o. The total labour force on the Coromandel and Waikato field was reckoned to be 1,118 (compare this with the north of Auckland figure: 5,779). Not all the Maori affected would have been members of Hauraki iwi; census enumerators regularly note the presence of other Maori, especially Te Arawa, in the Coromandel gum diggings and the presence of Hauraki Maori in neighbouring districts, possibly in search of gum.

3.18 The 1898 Royal Commission (referring to the northern fields) stated that Maori `take to gum-digging only when their crops prove a failure or their stock of provisions gets exhausted'—circumstances which would have been common enough in the south as well. `Wages' (ie. returns from the sale of gum) were said to be around 27s a week, presumably for 'the equivalent adult male' (AJHR 1898 H12). This suggests that even in good times—when gum was available and export prices reasonable—cash incomes were still distinctly low. Wilkinson reported in 1886 that Maori preferred 'the independent life of gum-digging, at which some of them earn very good wages', to railway construction work (AJHR 1886 GD. There was, however, little construction work available in the economical 188os. Gum diggers were not, strictly speaking, wage earners but small entrepreneurs selling the gum they collected. But, because of their dependence through indebtedness upon often unscrupulous dealers who were also storekeepers and publicans, they were in fact at the mercy of the dealers. The Secretary of Labour, Edward Tregear, argued that legislation affecting wages should be extended to 'other forms of employment through which people were trapped in debt to their suppliers', and instanced gum diggers and small farmers (AJHR 1894 H6). Pakeha as well as Maori diggers would have benefited from such protection, but this advice and the further suggestions of the 1898 Royal Commission were ignored. CAJHR 1898 HI2).

3.19 Many more Maori than these figures suggest would have had some part in the gum trade. The 1893 total is no more than a snapshot; over the period as a whole much greater numbers would have been drawn in by the lack of other resources. The activity probably had an appeal, too, as one which involved family groups. But high prices seldom lasted and over time the price level fluctuated greatly. Supplies of gum ran out in specific localities. Working and living conditions were commonly poor and unhealthy. Many diggers existed in a condition of debt dependency on storekeepers/dealers. School attendance suffered as families moved off. Probably, too, the cohesion of larger groups, hapu and iwi, declined as individuals and family groups travelled to the gumfields.

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