Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1932. GOLDFIELDS WITHIN THE EMPIRE.

Western Star, 18 October 1932, Page 2

Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1932. GOLDFIELDS WITHIN THE EMPIRE.

Gold, as a precious metal, lias long been mined, and wa s esteeme.d a valuable armament long before the Christian Era. It was the lure of gold that attracted the buccaneers to the Spanish Main. The City of old Panama, the emporium of the Spanish treasure fleets was the focal point of the power of Spain in South and Central America. Hither came the gold, the silver, and the jewels from Mexico and Peru. Here was the finest and richest city oil the American Continent, tile objective of every buccaneering expedition, the jealously guarded treasury of the power of Spain. Wild her e came the notorious Morgan to raid by force cities and forified places. They first looted the inhabitants, then murdered them, set fire to everything that would burn and after an orgy of lust and violence, departed with their treasure, leaving behind them a few absolutely destitute survivors and smoking ruins. Much of the buccaneers’ wealth was hidden in secret places in the West Indies, and to-day here as elsewhere diligent search is being made for the caches where the gold was hidden. The Spaniards robbed the Mexicans and Peruvians of their gold, and they in turn were spoiled by the British sea rover 5 who thought it the proper tiling to rob the Dons. A somewhat similar story can be told of the Arabs who descended into Africa and looted the natives of their golden ornaments. The Portuguese found gold in South Africa over four hundred years ago, but it was not until 188 G that South Africa became «a gold-producing country of any note. The really first great gold discovery which belongs entirely to the history of the British Empire was that which occurred in Australia in the early fifties of the last century. It was found in New South Wales, as the result 0 f a resident having gone to the California rush fin 1849. On returning he wa s struck with the similarity of the appearance of the auriferous country around’’Bathurst and that of California. After a little prospecting he wa s soon able t 0 fill a bottle with nuggety gold which, being shown round, caused an exodus from Sydney. I n a few days the country about Bathurst was the scene of unprecedented activity, and eager goldseekqrs swarmed throughout the neighbouring hills. ' Th e result was the dawn of the glorious gold dav s of Australia. Tli e prospectors spread south as discovery followed discovery, the famous Snowy River field being one of the most prolific deposits of nuggets ever known in the world. Followed the discoveries in Victoria which startled th e world by their richness. Ballarat and Bendigo became famous. Tlie Welcome Stranger nugget of 25C0 ounces, the Dunuollv 2817, and the Welcome 2240 ounces made Australia

known throughout tli c Empire, and

up a great stream of immigration into tile country, all attracted by the glowing reports of gold to be had just for the picking of it up. In the nineties of last century the. scene shifted to Wcstralia. It was bruited about in the, at that time, sleepy little capital of Perth that away out on. the desert gold had been found. This galvanised the whole State into action. Perth became deserted,Tlie eager crowds found gold everywhere. Three hundred miles north of Perth a prospect.-i- struck a vast area of auriferous country and

this led t 0 the blossoming' i •-■to being of the town of Calgoorlie.' But Wc.v fralia was destined to become, next to South Africa, the leading m.M-pm

ing country in the world. Prospectors out from Calgoorlj ( . chanced o n a water hole in which \va s disclosed an exceedingly rich reef. Thi s eanie to lie called t.he Golden Mile. If was the richest mile of gold-bearing regf ever

known on the earth’s surface, and was the cause of the wonder city of Kalgoorlie springing into existence as if by magic. Those who did not sell out their interests in the Golden Mile became millionaires, but the .discoverer, alas! died a poor man. Incidentally, further discoveries led to the growth of another town, Boulder City, which almost rivalled Kalgoorlie. Prior to the Westralian boom Gabriel Reid had discovered the rich gully at Lawrence in this Dominion, which bears his name, and he was not slow, in making it known. This brought thousands to Otago, and other rich finds were made at Dunstan, Shotover, Arrowtown, and elsewhere in Central Otago. Month after month the gold escort conveyed its £22.000 worth of gold to Dunedin, which went ahead by leaps and bounds under the stimulus given to trade, llie West Coast was another attraction, and in th e South deposits found at Round Hill, Orepuki, Switzer s and Nokomai proved exceedingly rich. Some of these fields are worked out, but the dredging on the West Coast is proving highly lucrative, l'liirty-six year s ago in Alaska between the boundaries of American and British territories very rich deposits were unearthed and a great trek to this inhospitable region commenced. The discover was made owing to members of an aboriginal tribe, the Tliron Diucks, wearing hammered-gold ornaments on their not too cleanly persons. This was obtained from the Yukon at a point where it was joined by several tributaries, atid the locality was very soon called Klondyke, which is only a corruption of the native tribal name Tliron Diuck. In 1897 the great rush set in even as it had done to New South Wales in the fifties, and to New Zealand in the sixties. By 1898 the gold fever had spread all over the world, and people of all nationalities were heading for Skagway andi Dyea, which were the nearest landing points to the new El Dorado. Bonanza Gulch, Big Bear Creek, The Dome. El Dorado Creek, and many other spots became the scenes of frantic rushes, and Dawson City, on the banks of the mighty Yukon, now however practically deserted, became created. After the Great War a known rich gold field in German New Guinea was proclaimed, and one of the best known workings is the famous Edie Creek situated on a tributary of the Bulolo, and named after the man who struck the first gold in New Guinea, and who had pioneered in Wesfralia. The means of communication are by aeroplane, although at first the rush to this quarter, where the native law wa s “Thou shaljt kill,” was by steamer, thence by the Razorbacks’ track, which was not infrequently as congested with pedestrian traffic as the steep and rocky road tKlondyke. Thus th e British Empire is the largest producer of gold in tin world, yet it has had to go off the gold standard because it has had to pay its war debts in gold. The Empire is a big thing, and no one can say with any degree of certainty just, exactly what are its gold potentialities. The slump lias given a tremendous impetus to prospecting. Even in New Zealand old fields are being re-worked, and the production of gold shows a substantial increase. It may be the same in other parts, and with greater kuoweldge to win the precious metal trained by experience in many countries. the gold-mining industry may show a wonderful recovery throughout the auriferous belts of the British Empire. As a mattei of fact some important finds have already been made in Australia. The discovery of a rich field just now would prove an immense boon. Invercargill brokers repoi’4 a auickeuing interest in. gold-mining ventures, and there is a considerable business in gold-milling shares being transacted. Owing to the renewed activity in Otago that province has put’ iust about three-quarters of a million into mining ventures quite recently, and if the same faith is shown in other parts of the Imperial heritage, the British Empire may rise superior to all its economic troubles and confound tile world by its rapid recovery from all the ills that afflict nofi only Britain and its great Dominions but every country in the world. Outside the Empire a country like Chile is looking to gold to solve its unemployment problem. It has despatched one hundred thousand of the workless out into the wilds to thoroughly comb the country in a. search for the precious metal For years Spain drew enormous revenue from South America in the shape of silver and gold, and Chile may unearth rich deposits which would help not only that country’s unemployed but the world.