MINING

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1931, Page 5

MINING

GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE TO INDUSTRY. DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTING. The fact that the mineral resources of the Dominion have not yet been adequately explored is very generally recognised, and the present Government, realising the potentialities of the mining industry, is giving every possible attention to its development. . During the last twelve monu.s itiO prospectors, properly accredited by the. .Mining Department, have been granted subsidies which have enabled them .to actively engage in a search for gold and other valuable minerals. This assistance has enabled qualified and reliable men to make more comprehensive and more sustained efforts towards the desired end than generally has been the case in the past. Gold prospecting, in particular, is being carried on with better equipments, greater activity and more encouraging prospects than has been the case for many years. This is the direct outcome of tiie stimulus given to this enterprise by the Government through the Mines Department, Encouraging Results. Encouraging results have, been obtained recently by some of the . workers engaged in these enterprises, and it is not much to say that in. several instances developments are likely to attract considerable capital to the Dominion from overseas. It is not minerals alone than are engaging the attention of the Government and. the Mines Department. Appreciating the vast import-?, anee of the Dominion being supplied with its own oil supplies, the Government has recognised in a tangible manner the efforts of the companies now engaged in prospecting for this allimportant commodity. One company now operating towards this end in the Dominion has expended no less than £300,000 in its efforts to find a payable oil well and the greater portion of this money has been found outside New Zealand. With a view to assisting in this all important work —important more or less to the whole community—the Government has remitted fairly substantial sums by way of duty on plant which could not be made in New Zealand and yet was absolutely essential to the establishment of the prospective industry. There is much reason for hope that in the near future the enterprise o? the promoter and the co-operation of the State will be attended bv satisfactory resulst.

It is scarcely necessary to say that the coal mining industry is a nactivity of very great importance to the Dominion. The various difficulties besetting it are not yet nil overcome; but the Government is doing what it can to meet the needs of tile miners and tiie public and to place the industry on a sound economic and secure footing. Since the. Government took office New Zealand"coaL has been used more extensively upon the State railways than was the ease a few years back, and there is reason to hape that in the near future the importation of quantities of coal from outside sources will be quite unnecessary,