THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1902.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11871, 24 January 1902, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1902.

The exploitation of gold has still a fascination for mankind which is not commonly felt in • the milking of cows and the making ;of butter, nor does the common-sense perception that the pastoral, agricultural, and manufacturing industries ' are ; ultimately more valuable to a people than mines of gold and precious stones blunt the edge of the universal interest in the world's gold output. , West : Australia is a State which depends almost wholly upon its auriferous wealth for its present prosperity and considerable standing ; it is therefore natural that its statisticians should take a special interest in the question, and should periodically produce papers and tablets which are authoritative in the world of gold. The latest of these is a series of tabulations by Mr. Malcolm A. C. Fraser, RegistrarGeneral of the State, which shows the total known, output of the world from year to year for the decade 1891-1900. Almost every country has a different method of recording its gold yield, and for purposes of exact comparison Mr.' Malcolm has converted all ' details into "fine gold," taking as the basis of calculation a gold value of £4 4s 11 5-1 Id per ounce. This accounts for the slight . differences between his tables and the official tabulations of the various countries concerned. :

The gold yield of the world for 1891 was valued at £25,450,000, an, amount which had only once before been exceededin 1855, when the output was valued at £27,000.000. Indeed, for nearly forty years, since the great yields of California and Victoria had sent the figures up with ! a rush, the 'output had remained, practically stationary. Yet by 1900 the annual output had been doubled, and had it not been for the closing down of the Transvaal mines would probably have been trebled. As it was, 1900 saw an output valued at £52,540,000, made by 12,370,00002 of fine gold from all parts of the world. This enormous amount had been exceeded in the two preceding years, 14,900,0000z, valued at £63,290,000, having been produced in 1899, and 13,959,0000z, valued at £59,290,000, in 1893. Even in 1897 the figures of 1900 had almost been reached, being 11,385,0000z,> valued at £48,360,000. For the whole decade, the world' I gold output exceeded 100,500,000 fine i ounces, valued at £426,925,000. | Fabulous as these amounts seem, it | is evident that they will be completely overshadowed in the comingdecade. For it is not merely a question of the reopening of the Rand, nor of the almost assured discovery of other great reefs in South Africa. Modem machinery and •technical science have been transforming the gold mining.' industry, so that more economical extraction, and consequently greater . production,, are steadily lifting the normal outputs of every auriferous country. With occasional exceptions, the gold of to-day is produced by highlyscientific processes, involving exceedingly heavy initial expenditures, and only possible under civilised conditions. The main risk of old was the life of the daring adven-turer-digger; the main risk of today is the fortune of the. adventur-ing-company. And one of the rarely-thought-of results of the continuous and enormous increase in the gold supply of the world is the gradual relegation of the currency question to the Limbo of dead and forgotten causes. The intertwinings of cause and effect are so infinite and complex that we can hardly assume that any great industrial factor might have been eliminated. But assuming that the gold production of the latter half of the past century had been no -.■■greater, than during its foraier half, and that the huge industrial, expansion of civilisation had been otherwise unimpeded, it is easy to perceive that the maintenance in our currencies of a gold standard would have been tremendously difficult, if not altogether impossible. Even as things were, silver made a big bid for recognition. The decline of the Silver movement is remarkably co-ordinate in point of time with the swelling of the gold supply, which marks the close of the Nineteenth Century,

Of the continents, America produced gold valued at £155,000,000 during the decade; Africa, £84,000,000 ; . Europe, £57,000,000, and Asia, £28,000,000. Australasia produced; 23,865,000 fine ounces, valued at £101,388,000, the yearly output rising from over six millions sterling in '91 to over fifteen millions in 1900. , New Zealand stands fourth among ; the contributing Australasian colonies, though we are closely rivalled by New South Our- output for. the period,

was 2,584,950 fine ounces, worth £10,930,170, Sydney-side being only behind us to the tune of £230,000. The influence of improved methods if* shown by the general maintenance of the relative positions of the Australasian colonies, despite our New Zealand increase of from y oooo3 in '91 to 338,0000z in, "1900.. The exception to .this rule is, of course, West Australia, which was last of the colonies with/ 270000z, in '91, 'and most easily first with 1,400,00007, in 1900. A similar instance is affordea by Canada, which produced only 45,0000z in '91, and 1,250,0000z in 1900—due to :; Klondyke. But the most : remarkable innovation; is undoubtedly to be found in the Transvaal, where the Band had been discovered in '86. The Transvaal produced 658,0000z in '91, considerably more than any Australasian colony was then producing, and more than Queensland yet produces ; in 1898 it produced 3,823,0000z, and in the nine peaceful months of 1899 it actually reached 3,G37,0000z. Over a quarter of the world's gold winnings of '98 and '99 was - got ■:? from the Witwatersrand, and another quarter from ;' the- ■ United • States. During the decade Rhodesia, S Madagascar, the Malay States, and the Dutch ~East: Indies have been I added to the gold-producing countries, ; ' and Mexico is recovering its ancient reputation. And r finally, the British production jumped from under SOOOoz: in '99, to over 13,0000z :■.-,■ in 1900, this being due to the opening of a quartz mine in Wales, l an ; innovation in the history of the United Kingdom. Altogether,; Mr. Malcolm's copious and exhaustive tabulation is itself a mine of information and a most valuable addition to the available statistics of this important industry.,