RESERVE BANK GOLD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 237, 5 September 1945, Page 6

RESERVE BANK GOLD

RETURN FROM HIDING. WELLINGTON, Sept. 3,

Recently the minesweeper Awatere slipped quietly into Wellington to unload one of the richest cargoes ever to reach the port. It was millions of pounds worth of the Reserve Bank's gold being brought back from its wartime hiding place, in the South Island. . The same secrecy;as that which had marked the dispersal of the gold cloaked its return to the Reserve Bank s vaults. Few people in Wellington knew of the precious nature of the consignment which was unobtrusively taken through the streets. The lifting of censorship enables the story of its dispersal in the South Island to be told. ....".■• . , When the Japanese were moving toward New Zealand the disposal of the gold reserve, mostly, in coin, was discussed among a few in the greatest secrecy,,and even Army personnel who transported the boxes, weighing about lewt. each, to the inland caches, could only guess at the nature of their freight. The weight suggested bullion; I but at that time many valuable documents and instruments were being removed from Wellington. I Many hiding places for the country's gold were found. The dispersal in the South Island extended to„ the back country of Central Otago. Few knew of the treasure; none talked or it. - , Though the gold has been reported weekly without fluctuation of other than a few pounds at £2,801,000 for | many years by the Reserve Bank, its lvalue, on today's market, exceeds