MINING

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21236, 7 August 1934, Page 13

MINING

WAITAHU SLUICING RETURN (PESSS A3SOCIATIOS TELBGHiiI.) DUNEDIN, August 6. The Waitahu Gold Mining Company it ports a return of 60 ounces for 11 days' elevating operations, GILLESPIE'S BEACH D?Ri:SS ASSOCIATION TBLSGBAIC.) DUNEDIN, August 6. Gillespie's Beach dredging return last week was 47 ounces for 128 hours' work. OKARITO ISEISS ASSOCIATION TEI,ZG*AK.) DUNEDIN, August 6. The Okarito wash-up for the week ended August 4 totalled 29 ounces Bdwl Cor 119 hours' dredging. MATAKI (I'EIBS3 ASSOCIATION TELEO-SAli.) AUCKLAND, August 6. The Mataki return for the week (nding August 5 was 29 ounces for 132 hours.

HOARDED GOLD INFLUENCE ON PRICE A factor in keeping up the price t>f gold that is not in the minds of many investors is the enormous amount of private hoarding that is taking place in other parts of the world, stales the Melbourne "Argus." It i:> taken for granted that gold will remain ai its present high price, or •.iiat it may reach even higher levels, and on these prospects some mining propositions that ordinarily would be vr-aixlcci as unpayable arc being :i>>aled successfully. In its last annual report, the Bank • :[. International Settlements estimated thai private hoards of gold represented at. least 7000 million Swiss francs. Converted at par of exchange this would represent £280,000,000 steriing, and at current exchange no less a sum than £450.000,000 sterling. This amount equals more than two and a half times the world's present production of gold. If this were merely the result of the operations of people who cannot help hoarding gold in any circumstances, its effect would not be :-o disturbing, but the hoarding that has taken place in the last few years is regarded as altogether abnormal. It is due is a large measure to the world depression, which has closed many avenues of investment, and second, to the instability of exchanges, which hinders international operations. If the estimate of the Bank of International Settlements is anything near the mark—and it is probably in the best position of any financial institution in the world to ascertain the facts —it is not unreasonable to assume that, as {he world emerges from the depression, the hoarded gold will be converted into credits for business purposes, and that as the gold flows back to its natural channels the demand will case and prices will fall cunvspondingly. Gold is not likely, even m these circumstances, to go back to its pre-depression price leveL bat the cessation of the operations ■ it' tempo)ary hoarders must affect it( upward tendency.

OTTAWA AGREEMENTS ATTITUDE OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE The Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire summed up its attitude to the Ottawa agreements by a resolution passed unanimously at a special meeting held in London on June 12. The resolution is as follows: "The Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire reaflinns its faith in the principles of the Ottawa agreements and expresses its conviction that the continued piactical application cf those principles, interpreted in a spirit of mutual cooperation and goodwill, offers the best hope for the prosperity of the trade ; nd commerce of the countries of the

Empire. "The federation accordingly urges his Majesty's Governments in the Empire U< maintain close contact with one another in consultation with the organised industry, commerce, and agriculture of their respective countries with the object of developing arid extending the system of interImperial preferences established by the Ottawa agreements. "The federation urges the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire also to lose no opportunity of putting forward to their respective governments practical recommendations having this aim."