THE GOLDEN AGE.

Northland Age, Volume IV, Issue 48, 20 July 1908, Page 2

THE GOLDEN AGE.

THE EARTH IS DELUGED WITH THE PRECIOUS METAL. Gold is tho basis and the measure all worl ily possessions, and we ire considered to he growing richer >r poorer ns the barometer of gold production rises or falls. Judging by this standard, the world is richer, nuch richer than it over has been More ; and the way in which its Health now is growing and accumulating with each circuit round the iun, as a snowball increases in cirmmference with each revolution, is ihe most wonderful, the most potential fact of the opening years of the century. Never in the world’s history has the production of gold approached its present volume ; never In the world s history has the increase from year to year been so trenu ndous. It is a veritable flood of gold. WHEN GOLD WAS SCARCE.

Gold was scarce when Columbus discovered America, but soon afterwards the mines of Mexico and Peru began to produce gold and silver in fabulous quantities. Spain soon became the richest country qn tho globe, and her treasure ships drew the freebooters of all nations to the Caribbean like flics to a molasses jar. We are accustomed to look upon that period as the golden age of the world but it was plated, and a mighty thin plate at that, compared with the golden age of the now. From 1492 to 1850 the gold mines Df ail l the earth gave forth an aggregate of £789,555,750. That’s a pile of money, to be sure, but we I have producod more than that within f ihe last ten years. In 1904 the world’s production was £86,723,000 ; in 1905 it was £94,966,750, and in 1906, it reached the amazing total of £101,162,250. The gold production of the last ten years, 1897 to 1906 inclusive, amounted to £800,183,864. This is an inconceivable sum, and in its bulk of metal is almost equally beyond understanding. It is said that a grain of gold can be beaten into a sheet covering fiftysix square inches. If this is so, then the world's production of the last decade could plate every foot of laud in tho chief cities of Europe, and would make a golden girdle 200 feet wide entirely around the globe. If drawn into the finest possible wiro, it could l?e stretched out to a length of 7,274,000,000 miles—long enough to run to the moon and back 14,000 times, or to be wrapped 290,000 times around the earth.

RAND RICHES. The increase is due to a number of causes, among which are the discoveries of new gold fields, the more extensive working of old fields, and new methods of mining, handling, and smelting which, by reducing the cost of operation, makes possible the util .‘ation of low-grade ores which could not be profitably mined before. By far the greatest goldfield in the world to-day is the Witwatersrand district, commonly abbreviated to the “Rand,” in the Transvaal. From a territory confined within a radius of twenty-five miles from Johannesburg is comiii t over one forth of the world’s present gold production.

Alaska hus been, and still to, a r groat contributor to this increase. It appears to be the general impression that the gold fields of our northern territory are practically exhausted. The excitement that followed the discoveries on the Klondike in the nineties has died out, and comparatively little is heard nowadays about mining operations in the far northwest. But far from being exhausted, the gold fields of Alaska have barely been scratched, and instead of the gt.ld production falling off. it has been increasing at a wonderful rate. Next to the United States in gold production stands Australasia, which indudes the continent of Australia, New Zealand, and some minor islands For over half a century Australia has been one of the world's greatest gold producers. Two years ago it led both the Transvaal and the United States, but the enormous increases of output in these two countries has placed them ahead of the antipodean continent. THE FUTURE. Will the increase continue ? Will the gold deposits be exhausted ? There is good reason to believe that the production will continue to grow in volume for some time to come at least. Few of the present sources of supply have reached the limit of their capacity, and the same forces which have helped to bring the output to its present stupendous proportions will be operating with everincreasing power as long as there is material to work upon. The discoveries in Nevada prove that our treasure chests have not been all opened. Prosjiectors by tho thousand have been traversing the length and breadth of California for over half a century, yet new and rich mines are opened every year. Alaska merely is beginning to give up her stores. There are 577,000 square miles in that vast territory, equal to more than three Californias or five Colorados, and practically all of it is possible gold-producing land. UNEXPLORED DISTRICTS. Alaska is not likely to reach tho limit of her possibilities for a century. And this is true to some extent of nearly all the great unexplored territories of the world. Siberia contains hundreds of thousands of square miles of land that no gold prospector has ever touched, and China has known gold regions which *rc entirely undeveloped.

And then we have in reserve the waters of the oceans, every cubic Coot of which contains gold. We lave not yet learned how to extract It profitably, but we will. It is possible that old earth's stock of gold a ill become exhausted some time, out that time to so far away that the present generation need not trouble itself About it.—“ Chat.”