MINING EDS GOLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19124, 16 September 1925, Page 16

MINING EDS GOLD.

DECADENCE IN AUSTRALIA. PROPOSALS FOR REVIVAL. ' /- s \ • ' >. FEDERAL BONUS SOUGHT. - -..... ■ 11 ,i [FROM OUR OWN CORREa 'ONDENT. ] SYDNEY, Sept. 10. Tho prosperity of Austo alia was founded largely upon the cbii- covery of gold. Hargreaves, discovery of the precious yellow metal near Bathui-a t in tho 'fifties, the opening of iiumem us Yictoriau fields within the following- generation and the rich strikes in West Av, istralia in tho 'nineties contributed to the m tional wealth in a manner that is now historical. Probably nothing helped to set Auia tiralia on her feet after tho disastrous Vbank smashes of the early 'nineties than 1 tho opportune finding of gold in exteui'ive quantities in West Australia toward ibe end of last century. Latterly gold-mining has gradually declined, until now it is practically a neghv ■ gible contributor to national production.. Even with the most modern methods of recovering ore from deop levels and of separating the metal from tho ore, gold mining is frankly decadent. Hardly ono gold-mining company in Australia is paying dividends. Yet tho men who know declare that there is still in Australia more gold than was ever taken out of it. Cost of .Recovery. Tho trouble is that costs have made recovery unpayable. While the price of gold remains standard, the cost of mining it has increased by leaps and bounds- An illustration of this was afforded recently by the decision of the West Australian Legislative Assembly to urge the Commonwealth 'Government to assist gold-mining by the payment of a bonus, as compensation for disabilities suffered by gold-min-ing through Federal action. During the war and for some year 3 afterwards, tho premium on gold enabled the companies to keep their heads above water, countering ,tha increased costs of mining, but when that vanished, hope of dividends also disappeared. The Federal action" which gold producers aver has placed disabilities on their industry, includes Buch economic factors as the tariff and Abritration Court. The Prime Minister, Mr. S. M. Bruce, when the gold producers put their case before him, refused to extend the bonus for production, as he had done to the meat industry. Although originating in West Australia the case for a gold bonus has now become Australian in scope. In short, every gold producer in every State finds himself so handicapped by tho stress of modern economic conditions and labour conditions, being much in advance of pre-war conditions on ti production cost basis, yet compelled to accept for his product only a pre-war price, that the bonus proposal gained ever-widening support On Mr. Bruce's suggestion, the gold' producers' case was placed before the Commonwealth Board of Trade, which has now submitted its report to the Prime Minister. Probably, acting on this rejport, a decision by Mr. Bruce' will be reached shortly, A Suggested Bonus. Mining authorities contend that the payment of a bonus by the Federal Government far a definite number of years would result in the gradual replacement of tiha present fields by new ones, and the opening np of leases" prematurely abandoned in the early days. They claim that given ten years' stability, through the medium of such a bonus, for the equipment of mines arid plant, extensive development and encouragement to lay down a definite progressive policy, many of the present mines in the Commonwealth would live for many years. Such a policy, these authorities declare, would result in working costa being . largely reduced through handling larger tonnages and advancement in metallurgical and mechanical davices. ,