FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOKOUT MAN.” AMUNDSEN Surely there was never more irony shown by Fate than is revealed in the situation of the great Amundsen. The modern world’s most notable explorer, he reached the South Pole and was the first man to actually “pass over” the North Pole. In his adventures he took far greater risks than have now to be taken by explorers who set out equipped with the most ingenious aids of science. He is now reported missing, not on a journey of exploration to further enhance his name, but on an errand of mercy. Should he perish, he will have perished nobly—fittingly, perhaps. But one would wish him years of ease upon his own hearthstone. LITERATURE’S LOSSES The death of Doiin Byrne, a substantial loss to letters in itself, comes to remind us that the literary mortality this year is great. Two great figures, and several lesser ones, have passed on, leaving their books alone to “plead against oblivion for their name.” Hardy’s death would have made the year a sad one for letters, hut the death of the veteran critic, Sir Edmund Gosse, makes it more so. Among the dead novelists of 1928, C. E. Montague is the greatest loss, and It is sad to think that he enjoyed his literary leisure for so short a time. There were other men, too, of lesser importance, but each had a following. Barry Pain was a beloved humorist, and Robert Keable and E. T. Raymond won a merited popularity. New leaders are ready to take the empty places, hut lovers of literature feel a wrench as these spiritual friends of theirs pass to the grave. • » * “THE GOOD OIL” While New Zealanders pin their optimism on the banner of oil, Australians retain their faith in gold, even though most of the great diggings have been “worked out.” The story of gold in Western Australia is a marvellous one. In her short history W.A. has produced £160,000,000 worth of “the precious metal,” and it is in the minds of mining experts that she will produce much more in much less time. And no one has more faith in the State’s gold mining prospects than its Minister of Public Works, the Hon. Alexander McCullum, in whose honour Mr. F. H. Hamilton, president of the great Wiluna Gold Mining Corporation, gave a dinner at the Savoy Hotel, London. He knew Wiluna, he said, in replying to the toast of his health. He had gone there with the Government’s chief mining engineer, Mr. Montgomery, who was under a solemn obligation, knowing that on his report to the Cabinet depended whether it would ask the people of Western Australia to pay for a hundred miles of railway to the field. Mr. Montgomery’s report was the most glowing that the chief mining engineer had ever presented to the Government of Western Australia. The Government is going to build the railway, and Mr. McCullum told his audience something of what he saw at Wiluna. A million tons of ore are in sight there, the value of which conservative estimates from various sources put at £2 a ton.

NO GAMBLE. EITHER “No proposition in the history of Australia,” said Mr. McCullum, “has ever been able to show such a wealth of ore exposed. It is not a gamble but an investment. There are a million tons of ore that you can put a tape round.” And that is not the end of tile story. Old prospectors round Wiluna say that there is no limit to the auriferous belt there. The Wiluna Corporation’s leases extend for two miles, but cover only a small portion of a ground which may be equally rich beyond. Wiluna is certainly a wonderful find for Western Australia, securing steady and profitable work ahead for 25 years, on ground already proved, and justifying belief in much greater developments. The Government, says Mr. McCullum, will not delay at all in constructing the line to connect Wiluna with the other railways of the State. He has none but a public and patriotic interest in this gold field, the possibilities of which he has carefully studied on the spot, with the aid of impartial experts, in whom he places absolute faith, and it is difficult not to share his view that Wiluna is the key to open a great mining revival in the State.