GOLDMINING ENTERPRISE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22090, 22 April 1935, Page 8

GOLDMINING ENTERPRISE

The high price of gold to-day may not be a justifiable basis upon which to launch a large industry dealing with low-grade ground, seeing that safe estimates must be bound by a time factor of considerable length. At the same time it must be said that the yield of New Zealand during the period when the price has stimulated production elsewhere ha»s been disappointing. A decline in the Waihi output has offset new winnings from many small-scale operations, and the increase in the aggregate appears less impressive than it may be regarded on some limited fields. From a national point of view, however, New Zealand has not risen to a great occasion. In five years the output of Australia has increased from under £2,000,000 to £7,500,000, the policy there having been to pay a bounty on top of the price premium, while that of New Zealand has been to take in taxation part of the premium. This discouragement may account for part of the apparent lethargy, but it is questionable whether the State has done all it might in encouraging enterprise. A good deal has been heard of the possibilities of goldmining that might develop from geophysical surveys. The Unemployment Board has certainly placed a considerable number of new men in the field, many of whom, thanks to this aid, have made themselves independent of the Unemployment Fund, and incidentally have fought themselves free of the dangers attendant upon receiving relief for a long period. But something still seems to be lacking. Canada, looking to the gold-bearing areas of its vast north, has voted one million dollars for fitting out "180 parties, each to be led by a qualified geologist, to explore and prospect. There has been activity in Fiji, mainly under the stimulus of outside influences, one being an Empire prospect initiated some time after the war. New Zealand has launched a number of new dredging and sluicing ventures, and has not been entirely neglected by experts, whose recommendations may command the confidence of British capital. Nevertheless the expected revival of the industry hangs fire. The mining law has been amended with the evident intention of giving scope to large enterprise, but results are still awaited. Some people incline to the belief, somewhat reluctantly, that confidence that was destroyed in the past by all sorts of wild cat ventures has never been recovered. In his address at the annual meeting of the Christchurch Stock Exchange a few months ago, the chairman, Mr. H. Kitson, frankly condemned some engineering reports for inaccuracy. Men in similar positions have found it necessary to complain against extravagances in poldmining company promotion. In these circumstances it seems necessary for the Mines Department to take a more prominent lead than it has so far done.