 Gum @-@ diggers were men and women who dug for kauri gum , a fossilised resin , in the old kauri fields of New Zealand at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries . The gum was used mainly for varnish . The term may be a source for the nickname " Digger " given to New Zealand soldiers in World War I. In 1898 , a gum @-@ digger described " the life of a gum @-@ digger " as " wretched , and one of the last [ occupations ] a man would take to . " 
