NORTHERN GOLD FEVER

NZ Truth, Issue 998, 10 January 1925, Page 6

NORTHERN GOLD FEVER

Signs of a Revival

Are They Going to Gamble or to Mine

(By "Old Timer.")

The recent anniversary — the seventythird — of the first discovery of gold m the Auckland Province leads to some reflection on the fact that just at present there is a symptom of feverishness among investors of this city, and that the word "gold" is on many lips. There is said to be a boom m prospecting, and several syndicates s haye been formed for the purpose of trying to locate payable quartz or alluvial. Does this feverish feeling and increased activity presage some fresh and great discovery? And would the opening of a new field be beneficial to the Dominion or otherwise?

To hark back to the first discovery. ».Towards the end of 1852 Governor Wyriyard went to Coromandel and there bargained with the Maoris to open their lands for prospecting. In Auckland a "reward committee" had been set up, and a self-reliant community had decided to offer the sum of £500 to the first person to locate payable gold m the province. This reward was claimed m less than a week after it was offered by Charles Ring, a> settler who had obtained experience on the Calif ornian goldfields. His find was close to Coromandel Harbor, m the bed of the Kaponga Creek. Some of the Maoris were jealous lest their land should be taken from them, but Te Tahiwha, a noted chief, and a younger chief named Hohepa Paraone, urged that the gold should be dug for — as long as the land was left. Thereupon it was agreed that the Maoris should be paid rental for their lands, according to the number of diggers upon them. There were no very rich finds at Coromandel; but later came the famous Thames field; the fields at Onehinemuri and the big mines at Waihi followed, as is now history. But the great Waihi mines have languished, and now the eyes of mining men are turned to the possibilities of fresh discoveries and fresh fields.

There are some people who argue that goldfields create "booms" which m the end are far from beneficial; that m the end, more often than not, more wealth has been put into the ground than has come out of it; that ruin and decay follow the false prosperity and the rushing life of gamblers for gold.

In some instances this has been the case. The shabby relics of many deserted villages m rough country, both here and m Australia, are melancholy monuments to the death of golden hopes which found no counterpart m the "dirt" brought to the surface. But elsewhere there are many thriving cities and* towns which might never have been had not the lure of gold been the magnet to bring men into the far bush. Where mines. have "petered out" there are now more dependable riches drawn from the carth — waving crops of corn and wheat, and thousands of acres of good grass, feeding their thousands of sheep or cattle. Thus it is that a solid permanency sometimes follows the hectic rush for gold, so that the opening of a new field, even though it proves to be unpayable, is not always an unmixfed evil.

Doubtless the re-awakened interest concerning gpldmining/ among Auckland investors may lead to a marked activity m prospecting m the north. Whether there will be any discovery of importance remains to be seen; and whether there comes of it good or ill. Gold has ever an irresistible attraction for men, and evil things have been done to gain it. These evils have included faked geologists' reports and salted mines. When a man is offered gold at a price he wants to first make very sure that it is gold he is going to get. For "all that glitters is not gold."