MINING POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 211, 7 September 1933, Page 20

MINING POLICY.

HAURAKI FIELD. RETARDED BY SYSTEM. NEW ACT NEEDED. (By E.M.) No. n. There is very little of the Hauraki or Coromandel Peninsula mineral field suitable for the unemployed prospector system established by the New Zealand Government. In reality, the field as a whole is only being retarded by this system, because it is high time for the opening of the third stage in its history, that of development by the employment of big capital in the establishment of steady industry and systematic prospecting according to modern mining practice. Big capital interests will naturally fight shy of a field governed according to the New Zealand Mining Act, with its out-of-date provisions, its system of tenure and the absurdities created by freehold rights. I do not see any hope for the establishment of colonies of unemployed on small claims on this field. On a placer field, -well and good, but on the peninsula the scheme is doomed to disappointment at the outset. Even if parties of these more or less inexperienced men were to start putting in drifts or drives, immediately they struck a bit of hard country they must abandon it, because they have no explosives. They might just as well be put on road works without picks or shovels. All up and down the fields I have heard of and met so-called "gold diviners." Could absurdity be carried further ? I actually heard of one syndicate employing a "diviner." Gold divining is pure nonsense. The Mines Department is carrying on a so-called geophysical survey of .some goldfielde. Geophysical survey is an attempt to do scientifically what the "diviner" does unscientifically, and it is a long way off being an exact science, yet, if ever it is to become one. I have never known it do anything worth while on the fields in other countries, and while I do not say it may not eventually prove some of its claims, I am afraid the Department is in for a sad disillusionment. Small Claims.

The limit of a prospecting claim is 100 acres. What is the use of a claim of 100 acres to a big company prepared to establish treatment plants costing upwards of a million? True, it may take up a number of euch claims by going through all the farce of corner and angle pegging of each 100 acres and doing it annually, but it must man each claim separately instead of concentrating its labour where it requires it, and it observe this manning scale on each of its claims while it is raising its capital, establishing its plant, a work of over a year to begin with, or concentrating on one reef system with diamond drill boring. To crown all, at the end of the year an early bird may peg in several of its claims and invite it to buy them back. True, it might convert the prospecting license to special quartz license, a more secure tenure, but then it must pay higher rent, employ more men and carry out mining to specific plan on each of the areas, although it might wish to concentrate on one. On one section of the field where a company proposed to take up a sufficient area with a view to prospecting on a comprehensive scale and -with, modern machinery there was outcry against anyone being allowed to. hold. eo much ground. Yet there was no hope in the wide world of mining in that area except on a large scale, and the ground had been vacant and unwanted for something like 20 years. Truly some authority with eome eense of perspective is needed, to take charge of this field. Qualified men are required. The present system is aggravating to everyone concerned and is bound to lead to ignorant decisions and farcical situations. An amusing instance was pointed out to me in one place. An old abandoned mine, full of water, had been pegged out as a prospecting area by a relief worker. One wondered if he proposed to bale it out with a bucket. It is but one of scores of examples of what I call the futile stage in the field's history. Capital Expenditure. One important section of the field has actually bee,n. labelled "forest reserve," not "quite as bad as freehold, but an example of official bungling. In one area where there was considerable secondary enrichment there is little or no ground above drainage level that has not been combed over and over by the early diggers. In that sense there ie little or no virgin ground. Obviously the next stage calls for deep shafts and modern pumping machinery, a, costly lay-out. But there is no mining because it is not worth the while of any company to go to fhe expense of deep drilling when the country is held in small claims by individuals who are unable to do anything with it, and the Mines Department is playing round with proposals for subdivisions into ten-acre "cabbage patches" for unemployed. The way. to settle the unemployed problem is to get mining started and it needs large capital and big areas .nowadays. Proposals for any such investigation of large areas by capital interests are met with resentment by the unemployed, who consider 100 acres large. I wonder what they would say to claims of 5000 to 20,000 acres that I have knowledge of in other parts of the world? But if there are absurdities on the field and stupidity in the Mines Department, there'is a Rip Van Winkle state of public opinion that is even less understandable. Amongst the business community there is amazing ignorance of the possibilities of this field and of the wonderful progress made by the mining industry in other lands. The- invariable talk turns to "wild cats" as if that settled all argument. If there were "wild cats" in the past, who is to blame? It was not the fault of the field itself, but of the system or lack of system under which the industry laboured in years gone by. Nor can the business community shelve-all the blame, for business men, embarking on mining ventures, have committed some queer errors. The history of some mines that were closed down as unpayable, the geological structure of the areas and the attendant facts, all go to show that those mines ought to have been payable and ought to have provided steady work for many years, but directorates of business men knew better than their technical advisers and the result was disaster. I have come across instances of perfectly good mines that have failed, as they were bound to fail, because of hopelessly inadequate capital. They never should have been commenced on the capital available, but they were, and so many more propositions were added to the list of,what the ignorant public calls "wild cats." The Great Boulder mine, which has produced millions, was voted a hopeless "wild cat"

in ite early history. I have also in mind various mines that produced large dividends. All the gold won was paid out in dividends by directorates of business men. In some cases it doubled and trebled the original capital. But nothing was carried to reserve account.' Consequently when some dead work or development had to bo done there was no money. So those mines were labelled "worked out" and abandoned, whereas they had not been even half worked. It is a sorry tale of mismanagement and obtuseness on the part of so-called business executives. Public Ignorance. How to begin to dispel the ignorance on the part of the public is a puzzle. It seems to me New Zealand needs to learn more of what is being done elsewhere and to gain some idea of what is possible to mining science nowadays. It seems to me the Government should start from the ground up and establish a Bureau of Mining, staffed with technical advisers who have those qualifications that are required of their technicians by the great mining companies of the world. Not only every branch of the Department's activities, but all its field work, investigations and inspections of mines, should be in charge of men holding those, high-class certificates required in mining nowadays, and, moreover, these men should be familiar with modern mining and large-scale treatment practice. Then repeal the Mining Act and frame an entirely new one in keeping with modern times. The present law is over a quarter of a century out of date.