MINING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3773, 6 July 1926, Page 69

MINING IN NEW ZEALAND.

THE HON. G. J. ANDERSON. HIS WORK PRAISED. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 8. The New Zealand correspondent of thol Mining Journal writes at length of the great success of the New Zealand Exhibition, and ha sends a summary of the speeches at the Dominion Mining Conference dinner. In dealing with the different expressions of opinion, especially with the utterances of Professor Park and Mr Banks, the correspondent is w' oily in accord with their view’s regarding clean mining. “Wild-cat pchemes,” he says, “continue to appear upon the New Zealand markets unmolested, some being fully subscribed; others go to allotment on a 10,000-share sale, trusting that later the public will be induced to take up the unsold shares, and thus continue along lines of hope that something will turn up in the mine to create public excitement and set loose some of the ‘wild-cat shares. This class of mine promotion has been the greatest set-back to New Zealand. It is time the Government took a hand in forcing such ventures out of action, and assisting approved mines that will stand at least a fair measure of promise and assurance that such a mine is worthy of - the general public’s considers*, tion. “The Government, of New Zealand is only waking up in respect to its mining industry, and it is the general opinion that the present Minister of Mines, the Hon. G. J. Anderson, is the only Minister that has a live grasp of the requirements of mining in this Dominion. Credit must be given to the Government for its liberal financial resistance, which has been granted to several companies during the past few years, though it cannot be said that th© companies so benefited were enabled to output metals in sufficient quantity to reimburse the, Government by the assistance enumerated. However, it is satisfactory to know that liberal assistance is offered by the Government to any legitimate mine that warrants the judicious expenditure of capital.” The correspondent is not altogether in agreement with the Minister of Mines regarding the proposed system of scientifia prospecting, which he asserts will prove beneficial over the methods of the past. He proposes that prospecting parties should have geologists closely supervising all the work undertaken by Ihe party, and that their general direction should be strictly adhered to The Mining Journal representative regrets that ho cannot find any evidence in tho geological department’s work in past surveys in New Zealand where any experienced miner would find gold, yet the Minister proposes that a geologist should head the prospecting! parties, irrespective of the experience and ability ot the miners comprising them. If the Minister would direct an experienced prospector to undertake the systematic exploration of any given area and see that the work was carried out systematically, confidence is felt that good finds of metals would be recorded; then, when that had been accomplished, the geologist could be brought into the business, where his advice, from a scientific viewpoint, would probably prove of service.