Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./N.Z.) money; esp. money as paid in return for something, e.g. work.

1860		Sth Aus. Register (Adelaide, SA) 6 Dec. 3/6: He asked to remain for the night. Nolan, the landlord, enquired whether he had any ‘hoot,’ a slang name for money.
1861		Mt Alexander Mail (Bic.) 25 Oct. 5/3: On being arrested, the prisoner asked witness if he thought that he was such a fool as to have any of the ‘oot’ (a slang term for money) on him, if it had been stolen.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 3 Aug. 6/4: A careful old emu, with plenty of ‘oot’.
1892		Ohinemuri Gaz. (Waikato) 27 Aug. 2/3: You’ll have to decide between yourselves who gets the hoot.
1896		Truth (Sydney) 12 Jan. 22: There are several specimens of bush slang transplanted from the Maori language. Hoot is a very frequent synonym for money or wage.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 151: SUGAR: slang for money. syns. – [...] oot, oof, ooftish, pieces.
1914		Truth (Wellington) 3: [picture caption] Elizabeth Black (Who Allegedly Relieved Willie Worms of His ‘Hoot’).
1922		Truth (Wellington) 3 June 5/6: The ’oot he collared came to £21 10s.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 274: On the construction you could make a pot of hoot in no time.
1938		Press (Canterbury) 2 Apr. 18: Slang words of Maori origin [...] ‘hoot’ (utu).
1944		in A. Marshall These Are My People (1957) 146: He wasn’t like those blokes with the hoot who keep tellin’ you how lucky you are.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 84: ‘Smash, dough, fiddlies, coin, tin, hay, oot, shekels, sponduliks,’ said Gordon. ‘I’m still the highest paid member of this company.’.
1959		D. Niland Gold in the Streets (1966) 166: Bankers and bookies [...] Stand them on their heads and the hoot’d roll everywhere.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 144: Reckon we ought to have something to aim at, like getting a bit of hoot together to buy a little farm.
1973		P. Wilson N.Z. Jack 110: ‘Here’s some hoot.’ Don handed him a couple of fives.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 58/1: hoot money; corruption of Maori ‘utu’, ransom or price; also hootoo, hout and hutu; c. 1840.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].