WORLD’S GOLD OUTPUT.

Mataura Ensign, 12 January 1920, Page 7

WORLD’S GOLD OUTPUT.

In 1846 the whole world produced leee than six million pounds .worth of gold. Then the Californian goldfields were discovered. and in four years production had leaped to eighteen millions a year. In Idol.) It was twenty-four millions: hy the end of the (eiitury it. was sixty millions, while to-day the oohl mines ol (he world are turning on( very nearly a hundred million pounds Worth o! gold every year. Within ahull t seveuly years tie.' output of gold has been multiplied hy seventeen. yet in tin' same period of time the population of the world has increased hy only ninety per cent. .(.his being so. it might we!! he imagined that there Mould now he more than enough <;o.d for the 'vo rld's purposes, ami that the j preeious . metal ■ would have eunsecpienlly } depreciated in value. As a matter of fact, nothing of the kind lias happened. In the first pane, while the population ot the world at j large ha> only increased hy about ninety | per cent, dining the period mentioned that of civilised countries has chadded, and more than chadded. It !s the 1 cisn- . iis eel countries that use gold as a jnodium of exchange ami as their basis ol tin' iC'iny. Next, the individual wealth <0 these ecamtries Ins increased enormously, aim t he"e fore their people le'pnre a gieal deal more gold for purpose* ol com. Several countries which in 1860 were work itgg on a 'silver or paper tam-eimy have come up to the gold standard, the latest Of These being Spain. The third and perhaps most impoitant point of ail i> the enormous aimnint o: gold now used in industry. 1* or the arts such as jo we! lery. gold plate, gold leal, for purposes of ornament and decoration, the world is now using three times as inueh gold in a year as the whole amount produced in 1846 —that is. about eighteen million pounds worth. The waste of gold is another hn.loi which keeps down the supply. J'cw peo file consider how great is (fie waste ol gold hy wear and tear Jkiek two thnns and ha)t-soverigns in a hag and send them on a journey of a thousand miles: at the end of the journey one hall-sovereign s weight of the gold is clean gone'. it ii. in the shape of dijst adhering (o the in side of the hag. in the eonr.'e of one years ordinary use a sovereign loses one and a-lialf per rent of'its weight. t'aiefnl ea hj n hit ion go to show that (lie annual loss which actually takes place hy wear and tear oi cold coin can he no less than lorn; millions nf pounds sterling. All this pro digams sum is dissipated into fine dust, and utterly lost. Kvery ship that goes to the bottom take's with her a eertain amount, of gold. It may he only a few pounds worth, or as in the ease of the famous Lntlne a million may he lust in a minute. Kvery fire that occurs means a destruction of gold, ami there is never a minute, day or light, when scores ol human habitations ate not burning. I .on don alone has 2.40J lires yeai'l^p 1 lesldes ail this, there is the matte!' of hoarding. In countries where banks are not, funnel in every town, the people who have gold hide or bury it. In many eases they die without revealing the .secret of the hiding-place. in this way India alone swallows up more than half a million pounds’ worth ot gold yearly. China, more than this, while Africa \- at present absorbing gold in this way at (he rate ot more Ilian a niM'.iun pounds a. year. The money is paid awages to Ka/Hr labourers at (lie mines, and hy them carried away to thenkraals, whence it never returns.