The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, Nov. 28, 1863.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 61, 28 November 1863, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, Nov. 28, 1863.

The price of gold is sit present in New Zealand, low, and the miners think it unfair that it should be so. We think it is well worth the consideration of Government how this can be remedied. Some time ago the Banks here advertised that the price was to be £3 155., and now it has been reduced to £3 14s 6d. So long as the Banks can by combination reduce the price of gold to their own figure, 60 Ion" will quantities of gold be carried from this Province, and sold in Victoria, or elsewhere.- Combination is often productive of good, but in this instance it is beneficial only for the few. Civilized countries generally have provided means whereby the seller can obtain a fixed price for gold, and thus it should be. Accepted over the whole world as the measure of value, surely there is something wanting when its price can be raised or lowered at the order of a few mercantile bodies. The Government of Southland have done much to improve and keep up its connection with the up-country miners; it has acted towards the inhabitants of the Lake district particularly, with a liberality which contrasts favorably with the actions of the Otago Government. There is one thing which the Southlanders might do, and the result will be profitable to them, and just to the miners. Let them establish an assay office, when the actual worth of each parcel of gold could be ascertained to a certainty; the gold after being assayed could be sent to the Sydney Mint for coinage, and the miner would thus be certain that he had received the real value of it. After each test had been, made ? Government certificates could be issued, upon which money could be raised without difficulty, if required. This would be the means of keeping the fortunate miner in the country, and the occupation of the agricultural lands of Southland would be helped forward. The Sydney sovereign is worth when remelted into bars, £3 17s. 9.1. per ounce in, England, if shipped, and the depreciation is therefore only three halt-pence in each ounce. Several of the Bankers attempt to say that

they lose sixpence on each sovereign byconversion in this manner. We must say that

it is not correct. The Bank of England is

bound by agreement to purchase all gold that may be offered to it, at the rate of £3 17s9d. per ounce, standard, or 22 carats fine, being the quality of the Sydney sovereign. We cannot see how the Government can ghut its eyes to the fact that this Province suffers in every way through

not having means whereby the price of gold

may be fixed. Gold is being daily carried to ' Victoria in quantities, and all helps to enrich that colony at the expense of this. It is looked upon when transmitted thence as the produce of her fields, and New Zealand suf-

fers in reputation. The people of the home country are only lately beginning to give Otago credit for being a really great gold-pro-

ducing country. The gold of New Zealand is surely equal in quality to the gold in other countries, and all know how persistently the banks continue to spread the report that it is not so. This can only proceed from a desire to keep down the price, and the miners suffer in the first instance, and the community in the second. At the International Exhibition the Otaso Government exhibited specimens of gold from four different fields, and the value of those specimens varied from £3 19s. 3d. to £3 17s. 4d. an ounce. This was after deducting all expenses for melting, &c. When the banks are able, by combination, thus to reduce the price of gold to their own profit, there is virtually only one buyer. What is to hinder them from advertising to-morrow, that they will not, in future, give more than £3 10s. per ounce. Who, in that case, would have a purse long enough to enter into competition with them? Truly the remedy is apparent, and the Government only can apply it We hope that the miners will continue to

hold their gold until some steps can be taken to provide for better prices being obtained. In an address, delivered on a former occasion, the ex-Superintendent of Otago, Major Richajrdson, said:—" No Government is " worth the confidence of the people, that " will not do everything in its power, by tests " aud analysiitions, to put it within the power " pf the miner to ascertain really the value "of the article of which he is about todis"pose."