WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18641, 20 May 1932, Page 5

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

GOLD PRODUCTION. A SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE. LARGE PAYABLE AREAS. (Empire Press Union.) PERTH, May 11. Production of gold in West Australia is on the increase. Since gold was first found in the State the yield amounts to 38,950,208 ounces, valued at £165,449,861, exclusive of the gold premium. In 1929 it was 377,17 6 ounces, 416,369 ounces in 1930, and 510,572 ounces in 1931. For the fli’st three months of the present year 135,818 ounces were won, showing an increase of 35,194 ounces on the yield for the corresponding period of the previous year. West Australia has large areas of auriferous country in which many mines for a long time had proved unpayable with the high cost of production, but with a gold bonus and a considerable decline in costs much of it has been tried again with success, and large companies have been able to work low-grade ore that previously could not be touched. University of West Australia. An important stage in the cultural development of the State was the opening on April 12 of new buildings for the University of West Australia at a cost of £195,000, made possible through the will of the late Sir Winthrop Hackett, former proprietor of the West Australian newspaper, who made the University and the Church of England residuary legatees of his estate. The new buildings overlook the broad waters of the Swan River at Crawley, a suburb of Perth, and are an amazing contrast with the small wood and iron one-storey collection of rooms which were occupied in the city for many years before the University received £425,000 under its benefacor’s will.

Primary Production Increases,

West Australia depends to a great extent on her primary production for Increased wealth. Her secondary industries are expanding slowly, but Immense progress has been made in primary production. Not so many years ago the State could not supply Its own wheat requirements; this season the yield is estimated at about 37,000,000 bushels—a reduction of about 16,000,000 bushels compared with that for the previous year, accountable for by the slump In prices and financial stringency. One of the most remarkable advances this year Is in the raising of lambs for export. In 1930 the State exported only 23,000; last year the total was 65,000, but It Is estimated that this year tho number will be 200,000. This Is duo to farmers having purchased 6000 additional rams, mainly of British breed, since the 1930 mating. The total apple crop last season was 749,440 bushels, of which 452.63 S bushels were exported, an increase of 300,000 bushels compared with the quantity for the previous season, and the grape crop increased by 21.0001 b to 297,715 lb. Butter production rose by about 500,0001 b to 8,666,3091 b, and last season the first exports from the State totalled 25,000 boxes. Fish Canning. West Australia’s coastal waters teem with schnapper, mullet, whiting, herring, skipjack, jewflsh and other sorts, which are supplied fresh at seaports by many men engaged in tho industry; but in the past the canning of fish lias received little or no attention. The State consumes a large quantity of tinned fish imported from overseas. It Is to "secure some of this trade that the West Coast Canning Company lias established a factory at South Fremantle, and after months of experimenting and gathering data from all parts of the world it has evolved a process, based on modern methods, capable of turning out 1500 cans a day. The products arc now in Hie West Australian market, it is a new branch of industry which it is hoped will develop into an important factor in trading.