MONSTER GOLD HUNT

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 292, 11 December 1935, Page 9

MONSTER GOLD HUNT

For the first time in the romantic history of the search for gold there is to be a systematic Government survey over a whole continent. It, is in Canada, which ranks second in the world for gold production, that this giant offensive is being planned. The Government is preparing to send out 900 ex perts, armed with all the weapons of modern science, to cover the vast territory bounded by the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans. “Prom next June," said Mr W. A. Gordon, Minister for Mines, “we expect to send out 850 men in about 180 separate expeditions, led by experienced geologists, to cover 140,000 square miles of territory. They will survey and report on the possible development of Northern Canada, which may prove to be the economic salvation of our country." Ho concluded by declaring that the effect of this great enterprise might bo to wipe out all Canada’s debts and increase the work! production of gold fivefold. This possibility has naturally aroused keen interest in Canada and in the great gold markets. Inside Caiiaflabecause it would put the country on her feet again after the repeated disappointments encountered since 1918: and outside Canada—because influx of gold into world circulation is bound to have important repercussions in other countries. <

It should be noted that tho organisa tion of these expeditions has been die-

Canadian Offensive Planned

tated primarily by internal conditions in Canada. The platoons of prospectors who are to bo sent across the sparsely populated tracts of the Do minion will be composed of young geology students, graduates of technical schools, and mining engineers who have just passed their examinations, all of whom are members of the army ot uneiupJoytd intellectuals, in Canada as elsewhere a diploma is no open spsume in times of crisis, and the young Canadian engineers, like our own technical school graduates, aro feeling the pinch of unemployment. It is therefore prim arily to provide some relief for these scientific workers and save them from the pernicious effects of enforced idleness that tho Government of Canada has undertaken this survey of its gold resources aud voted funds for the Mines Department. “Our Ministers at Ottawa aro practical men," we were told at tho Hign Commissioner’s Office in London, “and they have taken every possible precaution to assure the best return for tho proposed expenditure of ono million dollars. Their trump card is that they have behind them a long experience of gold rushes. Up till now all prospecting has been organised by municipalities, railway companies, or industrial trusts. It is expected, therefore, that the great campaign of this summer will yield better results, as it is to bo conducted on a national scale."