WINNING OF GOLD

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 48, 19 November 1932, Page 10

WINNING OF GOLD

Chance for Unemployed HEALTH AND EARNINGS “Though the returns in most instances are not large, the gold mining scheme for the unemployed is a good one in that it gives the men a certain amount of independence.” Such is the opinion of a young man who recently passed through Wellington after working for some months on the goldfields at Matakanui, Central Otago. The young man told ‘The Dominion” that under the scheme the men were paid 14/9 a week, which kept them in food. As they were supplied with tents by the Government, . they could look upon any gold won from their claims as almost clear profit. That was with the exception of the 10 per cent, taken by the Government. The speaker had with him a sample of the gold mined in the locality, where he was working, the metal being of a very fine texture and only a few pennyweights in weight. “That represents a week’s hard work,” he said, “so there are not many fortunes being made.”

The life in the camps was healthy, he continued, and the work exceptionally hard. The climate was good, though exceptionally cold in the winter. Concluding, the young man remarked that the treatment of the unemployed by the people of the district could not be better. ! — — —■'