GOLD MINING INDUSTRY

Evening Star, Issue 21469, 21 July 1933, Page 9

GOLD MINING INDUSTRY

DEVELOPMENT IN OTAGO EXPANSION LEAGUE'S VIEWS The national importance of the development of the gold mining industry, in Otago is stressed by the Otago Expansion League in its twenty-first annual report, which expresses the hope that the assistance to the industry'given by the Government and the’Unemployment Board should ,be maintained and even increased. ; The league lias consistently urged that the development of the gold mining industry in Otago would be of national benefit,, not only on account of the wealth won, but from the point of view of providing work for those who are workless, the report states. For that reason the league urged the subsidising of prospectors and any other means, such as a geophysical survey, to enable the precious metal to be won more easily. Some of the results of the subsidising of prospectors are apparent, and there is _ every evidence _< f future prosperity in the gold mining areas of Otago and elsewhere. When one realises that the subsidised miner in the country is a lesser liability to the State that he would be in the city, and that in the country that miner feels thatf he is a free man and of some use to himself and the State, it is borne in upon one that the further development of our goldfields provides a sure way of relieving the unemployed question. A perusal of the gold returns for the dominion during the, last few months is a striking testimony to the wisdom of the Government and the Unemployment Board M granting assistance to the /mining industry, and it is to be sincerely hoped that this assistance will be maintained and even increased. By so doing benefits, both directly and indirectly, will accrue to the State by added wealth to the dominion, by commission on gold won, and by placing to the best advantage those clamouring for work. .

With the price of gold somewhere about £6 4s per oz—and there is every indication that the price will remain at a high figure for many a day—several fields in Otago that were closed years ago through being unprofitable to work are now exceedingly good propositions, and with the improvements thrVliava been brought about in methods of gold securing much activity in these fields can he expected. “ An avoidance of « wild cat ’ speculation and the establishment of the industrv on a sure and sound foundation will mean that Otago and Dunedin will come into their own once more,” the report concludes.