DUMMY MINES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19804, 1 June 1926, Page 6

DUMMY MINES.

DETECTIVES’ RAIDS. (F.bou Otjb Own Cobresppndent.) SYDNEY, May 30. "While the story of the war against gold stealers in Western Australia is full oi thrilling adventure, it has not hitherto been sullied by anything approaching the savagery of the murder of the two detectives at Knlgoorlie. It may have been that the strikingly rolerant public attitude towards the gold stealing has ordinarily deprived the business of the desperate atmosphere which surrounds robbery. The only sensations to which the public have been treated hitherto were the surprises which the detectives sprung on gangs which were carrying on illicit gold dealing on an extensive scale. It was the practice in some cases for men to work small plants, ostensibly mining ore drawn from their own mines, which were kept fully working. The whole business of these concerns was carried on with every appearance of being above board, even to the returns of ore crushed and gold won which were supplied to the Mines Department. Everything was all right, save the gold—which was stolen. The gangs were receivers on a large scale, tlieir activities under the guise of respectability. Two big organisations of this kind were raided by the police a few years ago. In one case the detectives secreted themselves in an abandoned hut, and with powerful "■lasses, kept watch on the operations of one plant day and night for a couple of months. The late Detective-sergeant P'tman, one of the men brutally done to death, was engaged in this case. A peculiar result of the operations of these pseudo mines was revealed when, some years ago, the Department of Mines, in an attempt •to give a fillip to prospecting, decided to furnish details from its official returns of shows that had been worked and abandoned while there was still <mld in sight. It was then realised that this data would be far from reliable as the returns of gold won from a good many mines were false, the figures given being of stolen gold and, therefore, no indication oi the possibilities of the locality.