“RICHES EQUAL TO RAND.”

Taranaki Daily News, 26 January 1934, Page 6

“RICHES EQUAL TO RAND.”

Riches in gold equal to those of the South African Rand lie buried in the Manuherikia Valley in Otego, according to the belief of some officers of the Scientific and Industrial Research Department. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, “is fully aware of the potential value of the area and recognises the immense benefit to New Zealand which would result from the successful working of this field.” In the meantime thousands of men are languishing throughout the country for lack of remunerative employment. Such a paradoxical state of affairs should not be permitted to continue; it has already existed for at least several years. Either the officers of the department are over-opti-mistic or there is a lack of initiative and enterprise somewhere. Even if the Government’s present rights in the goldfield are limited the State still has the power to see that the fields are developed with proper expedition. The gold is wanted now—not when prosperity has returned and every man is reabsorbed in profitable employment. Such riches as the departmental officers describe are too tantalising a bait to dangle before the eyes of men who thirst for honest work and the comfort it brings if the authorities do not intend immediately to set about making them available. Development of the field would cost money, but if the Government has confidence in the judgment of its officers the wherewithal could be found and work provided, as the department suggests, "for thousands of men” now unemployed. An immediate investigation of the prospects certainly seems to be warranted. Possibly the officers who likened the valley to the Rand were too enthusiastic, but the New Zealand Geological Survey has reported hopefully on the field. A note of caution, however, was added thus: “A scheme should be framed extending over several years, and a financially weak company would only be courting failure if it undertook the work. It is a task for a big mining corporation or a State department.”