COLLECTING GOLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20925, 15 July 1931, Page 14

COLLECTING GOLD.

Sir,—The letter of " Sacra Fames drawing attention to the high proportion of goW that goes into articles of adornment prompts me to suggest a means of raising a very large sum of money for unemployment relief or other important purpose. In the majority of homes there are gold trinkets of one sort and another, no longer fashionable and of no value as heirlooms. If people coulfi be persuaded to throw them into a collection to be melted down the result would be a lump of gold worth tens of thousands of pounds. I understand the people of France helped in this way to pay off the German indemnity of 1870. Patriotic fervour gave the incentive. Tho same emotion might be invoked in New Zealand to-day. The appeal would need to be launched by representative citizens and a campaign arranged frith all necessary safeguards. This was done in the war days though the trinket source of wealth was'not exploited. I believe that, in right hands, such an appeal would produce a sum that would surprise the world. It would not matter what the carat value of the gold is, the metallurgists would turn it into standard quality. Idle Wealth.