BACKBLOCKS SETTLERS.

Chong the old Chinese storekeeper, found out the value of the fungus which used to grow on the stumps in the bush clearings. After it was pulled and dried he was willing to pay "tuppence" a lb for it if we could only get it to his place of business over a score of miles away. Wo very soon became capitalists in a small way and it was the first pocket money we ever earned. Every boy in the place soon possessed a pocket knife. The other day a notice appeared in the newspapers offering tenpence per lb for fungus. If we had got that price fifty years ago what happy boys we would have been. There was not a very good feeling existing between the settlers' families and the Maoris on account of the feuds between them, and very often the Maoris who were very poor and had little or no money, would stealthily come into I the pakeha's clearings and steal his fungus. Often we would go out with our bags to get a good haul after scouting the previous day to see where the most fungus was, only to find that in the early morning the Maoris had come and "pinched" it all. Revenge is sweet, even in young boys' minds, and the way we paid out our enemies was that we went into their peach plantations and stole their fruit, at the risk of our lives, while we had plenty in our own orchards. We did this quite on our own for our parents would never have allowed it had they known. Chew Chong who established the fun- I gus industry, was a kindly-hearted man who used to laugh at the way we used to bargain with him to try and get as much as we could for our produce. He also had the credit of establishing the first butter factory in Taranaki, and was a man much trusted by those who did business with him. He died at a great age a year or two ago at New Plymouth.  Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 302, 20 December 1924, Page 30