Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated “THE EGMONT SETTLER” Established 1890. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1931. GOLD PROSPECTING

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 63, 21 February 1931, Page 4

Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated “THE EGMONT SETTLER” Established 1890. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1931. GOLD PROSPECTING

IN a recent issue the “Otago Daily Times,” referring to what it believes to be a certain increase in gold-mining, suggests that the activity is due in part to a lack of other employment having turned the attention of men with some previous experience of prospecting hack to their old pursuit, for mining does not lose its appeal for those avlio have ever engaged in the search for gold. Another and even stronger reason, however, for a quickening of activity in goldmining is provided in the present scarcity of gold. Mr. Francis Hirst, Governor of the London School of Economics, has recently given a striking illustration of the increased value which gold possesses relatively to other commodities. As gold now has twice the purchasing power that attached to it when Great Britain incurred her debt to the United States, the British annual payments are, Mr. Hirst says, actually double the amount that was agreed upon. There was probably no time when a discovery of gold within the Empire would confer a greater benefit on the British people than it would at the present time. As indicated by the report of the geologists above referred to, the mineral resources of New Zealand, so far from being exhausted, afe still very considerable. A great deal of the ore which abounds in the lulls and gorges may be low-grade, and the question whether it can be profitably worked may depend on the extent to which it can be won. In other words, the success of the operations would be dependent on the turnover. But in present circumstances there is a distinct attractiveness about projects to engage prospecting parties. The Mines Department is authorised under the Mining Act to make grants to such parties in 'cases in which encouragement of their activities is considered desirable, but these parties are, after all, working in isolated groups without any systematic guidance. In this connection the “Otago Times” suggests that there is no reason why the Unemployment Board should not divert some portion of its fund to the encouragement of prospecting by men who are qualified for the work, and says that private enterprise in Otago is being directed to plans for equipping parties of prospectors with a view to the subsequent development of country that furnishes promising results. This is a sufficient indication that some optimism exists as to the commercial potentialities of gold-mining in New Zealand. There may be assumed to be large numbers of experienced miners among those who are at present unemployed, and their services might be advantageously utilised in the prospecting of the districts in Otago and elsewhere, in which indications of the presence of gold have been obtained. Any revival of the gold-mining industry would prove profitable to New Zealand and prospecting merits encouragement both because of the value that gold commands, and because of the pioductive possibilities of the work on which p’ .pectors would be engaged.