The Colonial Yield of Gold.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 7, 12 February 1903, Page 18

The Colonial Yield of Gold.

The commercial reports just to hand from Australia ahow that the yield of gold for the year 1902 constituted a record, having reached 4,257,7780z. As the return for the year from New Zealand was also unprecedentedly large (503,100oz) there is some compensation for, the appalling losses by the drought. Some interesting comparisons may be made from the letuin. Western Australia, long derided as merely a temporary source of gold production, now produces about one-half of the total for Australia, and after Victoria and Queensland New Zealand comes next. Moreover, Western Australia is the only one of the Australian States showing a large and regular increase since 1899. The largest relative increase since that year is shown in New Zealand, where it has almost doubled. For this no doubt the dredging industry has been responsible, and this, though it realises nothing like the dreams indulged in, is another proof of the stability of New Zealand resources. It should be noted, also that, notwithstanding the occasionally sensational yields from dredges on the far-famed Molyneux, it is the smaller dredges that produce the largest aggregate The claim that can be relied upon to return for an extended term 20 to 25 ounces per week is a far more lucrative field of investment than a ' jeweller's shop,' where occasional dazzling yields disturb prices of shares and often induce buyers to give more than they are worth. It used to be a common fiction that every ounce of gold won from the earth cost more than four pounds to find In Western Australia, at all events, this does not seem true. Since the disco\ cry of the fields in 1886 the value of the gold produced has been upwards of 37 millions sterling, and the dividends paid amount to almost eight millions. Against this must, of course, be placed the abortive investments, and beyond these the baffled hopes and ruined health for which this particular state is so largely responsible.