3.2o Dependence on gum digging extends across the later 19th century into the loth. In 1870 it was reported that many `Queenite' Maori were digging in the Katikati district (AJHR 1870 A16). Wilkinson reported in 1881 that gum digging was the preferred source of income in the district when prices were high and that large quantities were still being found CAJHR 1881 G8). A year later he reported that though agriculture was improving gum digging was taking people away from the land AJHR 1882 G1). Later in the decade he described how Hauraki Maori preferred to go off to the hills and dig gum in small parties rather than cultivate food in communal groups, often staying away from their homes for months at a time (AJHR 1887 G1). Many Maori (like many Pakeha) would have combined cultivation with gum digging. The plight of Kennedy Bay Maori in 1898 was attributed to the simultaneous failure of crops and lack of gum (JI 1898/868). It was evidently of importance to both Te Kerepehi and Manaia Maori early in the loth century (BAAA Ioca 596a, I00I 297a). In 1903 Opoutere Maori were described as both `settlers' (ie. farmers) and gum diggers (BAAA 1001404b).
3.21 Many poorer Pakeha settlers who could be similarly described competed with Maori for access to the gumfields. There is some suggestion that there was an element of territorial segregation. When, in 1893, the Woodlands and Tauhei blocks (owned by the New Zealand Land Association) were opened to diggers, Maori were limited as to the area they could use. When a new block was opened for their use, 400 waited for the moment and rushed the field, much to the amusement of the reporter (Thames Advertiser, 25 Feb 1893). In depressed times—this was the year in which the Miners' Union asked the Auckland branch of the Labour Department for information on job opportunities for its unemployed members—Maori appear to have been restricted in their access to this resource.
Farming activities
3.2z Information on Maori farming is sparse and for the most part general. Until 1892, Native Agents from time to time reported in broad terms on the matter, but the abolition of the Native Department in that year caused this source to dry up. Census enumerators give some information occasionally, as do other officials such as school teachers. Unluckily the Stout/Ngata Commission of 1907-1908, which reported so extensively upon some parts of the country, had only one sitting (at Coromandel) and gave little information. A possible reason for this lack is instructive—among the tasks of the Commission was to report on Maori land which could be leased for settlement, but there was little Maori land left in the Hauraki region.
3.23 Until well into the zoth century Maori were a rural people. Census returns showing Maori population in boroughs and town districts are available only from 1926; in that year they show only a small Maori urban population in this region-14% in boroughs and town districts within the counties of Ohinemuri, Hauraki Plains, Thames and Coromandel. Outside the larger centres the urban-rural distinction was not marked
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