INDIA'S BURIED TREASURE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 45, 22 February 1913, Page 2

INDIA'S BURIED TREASURE

ROMANCE OF HOARDED WEALTH. A RAJAH'S GOLDEN WINDOWS. [FROM OUR OWN COIIUESPONDENT.} LONDON. 11th January. According to the interesting report of Messrs. Samuel Montagu and Co., the great bullion merchants, nearly all the gold dug from the earth in South Africa is by «i fresh digging operation deposit- ' ed again beneath the soil in South Asia. In India gold is put to uses unusual among the nations of the West. Consumption of gold does not imply in England tho actual swallowing of extremely thin -gold- leaves for. medicinal purposes, 'though it is so taken in parts of India, with, it is to be hoped, satisfactory results to the patients. A frequent form of piety is torcgild the dome of religious buildings. Such'operations can easily absorb £10,000 or more. An en quiry a<3 to. the, ultimate use of certain .shipments of some thousands of • sover« eigns revealed the curious fact that a Rajah of rococo tastes had imported them to form a centre to each minute pane in tho windows of, his palace ! India occupies tho position of a credit tor nation on an. immerise scale, a fact . which renders the size of its gold imports a matter of primary importance to the rest of the world. It seems assured that these imports last year were not only a fresh record, but" will attain a total of not less than 28 per cent, of the world's output. This total, it is stated, is owing to the uninteriupfed prosperity of the country following a succession of good monsoons. HOARDED SAVINGS. "It will bo greatly to tie advantage of India/ saya the report, "when the natives learn to turn some portion of their savings into remunerative investments." But habits acquired during long centuries of unrest cannot' be changed ill a day. "British rule is,' as yet, little more than an episode in tho history of that ancient people." The world s production of gold, it i« reported, is. likely to exceed that of lsist year by '£4,000,000, and will probably be in. tho neighbourhood of £98,000*000. So fay as indications are to hand, the South African output has increased over £4,000,000 and that of West* Africa about £500,000. Of* the gold output of 1 tho British poseeesione, nearly 40 per cent, probably remaitis within territory the prosperity of which depends upon the protection of Great Britain. For 1 this reason- the currency laws of the British Empire hay© great influence on the movements of gold, and are of grave import to the world. There appears to bo great conflict of opinion among authorities whether the output, which has so enormously 1 increased during the last twenty years, has not provided a surplus, after satisfying the demand for industrial consumption, above what is actually required for "purposes of currency. "THE SILVER PURCHASES. An " interesting feature of tho letters are the references to the secret purchases of silver for India. During April, they state, there was a consensus of Opinion that the favourable movements of trade would niake substantial additions to Indian silver currency essential, ,but no one had even a suspicion until months after the event that the Indian Government had, with foresight, been securing gradually a stock of silver for the purposes of coinage. On the la^st occasion wlien silver coinage for India ,on a large scale became necessary, euch in prick had <been brought' about that it wairemilieriwy deferrable" to 'main-" tain secrecy t6 tho last moment, especially in view., of. the fact that a powerful group of speculators, whose adroitness was a byword, had been on the pounce for years, with appetite sharpened by long waiting. „ <•" ' A comparison of the average price of 1907, tho level to which the purchases of the Indian Government drove the markoty. viz., 30 ,346 d with 28|d, the average, at which the whole of the first £5,000,000 was acquired by the India Council, indicates the handsome saving which* the Indian Government effected by making its purchases with such secrecy*