GOLD PROSPECTING
MINISTER'S VIEW
NO "fcOMIC OPERA" METHODS
There arc to be no "comic opera" methods of gold prospecting for the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb). .
Speaking in reply to points raised in the discussion in the House of Representatives today on the Mines Department vote, he stated that there we're 1500 fewer men on gold-prospect-ing . schemes than there were twelve months ago. "You used.to go up gullies and see. camps pitched and men swinging picks over ground that had been worked out by old prospectors and later by Chinamen. They were wasting time and energy. Those men today are being put on to useful work. I don't want to see more of this 'comic opera1 method of gold prospecting. The old prospectors of fifty and sixty years ago knew more than we ever knew about prospecting, and they left nothing worthwhile. I want to stop men going about aimlessly, producing nothing, and living on hope." '. .
Referring to Government, assistance to mining syndicates, Mr., Webb said that the Government, when making any vote to assist companies and prospectors, stipulated that before any profits were paid the money voted had to be repaid to the State. "If- no profits are made," added the Minister, "then that has been our contribution towards assisting prospecting."
The vote was passed.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1937, Page 11
Word Count
219GOLD PROSPECTING Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1937, Page 11
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