THE GOLD ROBBERY.

Grey River Argus, 16 May 1922, Page 6

THE GOLD ROBBERY.

(Hv das. Muir. Hoss). j Some time ago the Minister of Miii-s paid a visit to the West Coast, ivud a deputation oi gold miners ..Heroic wed him iai Hokitika regarding thelow price the banks were giving us for gobi. He cairn' al! the way itoiU Wellington to toil us that be practically coukl do nothing in the matter, but \w had his sympathy! What qocs It s sympathy amount to? Not ininii. The value of gold for some years l ack is ;-. tlk rate of £5 15s |- r ounce, and the banks have only been paying us a.L the rate of L-» 17s and £3 Ills per ounce lor it. Tim Minister is rcporled io have thus stated it —th: t the matter could have been brought up at a much earlier stage, so that the profiteers could have been traced! A tine excuse to be sure I W’r.s not the matte- bn light up in Parliament, and little or no notice taken ol it ■ A gr.odw portion cl the proiit.ee ring is lying in the banks now going mouldy for the want of use (and the call, for i full value by the worker who produc ed it ’s g’dng unheeded). At the time the abolition of the gold duty took ; place, the late Richard John Seddon told al lof us to watch tin* banks, and to wait h them verv closely, or they would most assuredly have it. Th<’y have it now. W’e are not getting as much for it now as we got 1“” before the gold duty was abolished. Many years ago. a- party cl us mi.'-v-s were go’-ng out over the Hope Hadid*', away towards tlx* head of the Ihdh* l ' Kiver to do some pros|>ecting, and on passing a roadside public house toe publican called out io us "Don t go f ver the Saddle, hoy-- ! ’Thi< vf s and r< libers over the Saddle boys!' Il the same publican is alive to-day, bo inL'lit in all C utli say : "Thieves ai d robbers without going over the iSadd!o. boys.” W’lmtlmr an op-n a*ppeal should soften tl;e slony hearts of some of our bankers or not. it goes to them all the same—‘'(«ive back our gold ' Give ba* k our stolen gold !”