THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, 19th FEBRUARY, 1931. GOLD PROSPECTING.

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3262, 19 February 1931, Page 4

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, 19th FEBRUARY, 1931. GOLD PROSPECTING.

THE Unemployment Board having been in existence for only a short time, its members have, doubtless, not yet had the opportunity of examining all avenues in which useful work might be found for those who depend upon relief work for their means of livelihood. It is rather surprising, nevertheless, that the Board does not seem to have given consideration to gold prospecting as a method by which experienced men who are without work might be provided with employment. The gold mining industry in New Zealand, which in the earlier* years of colonisation contributed greatly to the progress and material wealth of the country, has in more recent years declined in importance. The value of the gold produced in the Dominion in 1929 was £527,340, slightly below the Value of the production in the previous year. There has lately, however, been a certain increase of activity in gold mining, and there is reason to believe that the production last year was in excess of that in 1929. The revival of interest in the gold resources of the Dominion will be due in part to a lack of other employment having turned the attention of men with some previous experience of prospecting back to their old pursuit, for mining does not lose its appeal for those who have ever engaged in the search for gold. Another and even stronger reason, however, for a quickening of activity in gold mining is provided in the present scarcity of gold. Mr Francis Hirst, Governor of the London School of Economics, has given this week 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. The mineral resources of New Zealand, so far from being exhausted, are still very considerable. A great deal of the ore which abounds in the hills and gorges may be low grade, and the question whether it can be profitably worked may depend on the extent to which it canibe 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 guide. There appears to be 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. Private enterprise in Otago and Auckland 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 amongst those who are at present unemployed, and their services might be advantageously utilised in the prospecting of the districts in the Hauraki, West Coast, and Otago mining areas 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 productive ' possibilities of the work on which prospectors would be engaged..