ILLICIT GEM DEALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 222, 19 September 1928, Page 8

ILLICIT GEM DEALS.

QUEENSLAND POOL FAILS. COMMISSIONER'S STRANGE DISCOVERIES. GOVERNMENT'S HEAVY LOSSES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 14. Incidents of a remarkable nature were touched upon in a remarkable document tabled in the Queensland Parliament this week—the report of the Commissioner, I Mr. T. Ferry, regarding the operations of the Queensland Gem Pool, into which he recently held an extensive inquiry, In effect, the main finding was that . the method adopted by the gem miners was to take the good stones to illicit dealers, and dispose of inferior gems to the Pool. At the beginning of the scheme, the Government grader, Mr. E. A. Goerg, : was giving just double the money he. should have been for..the quality,of the stones he was receiving. , , , "Neither Qoerg, nor Mr. 11. A. Knowles, the Government selling agent in London, knew, aqythjng about grading, while Goerg was . absolutely dishonest," remarked the Commissioner. "He admitted to the Commission that he was in the pay of Rubin Brothers, whose chief desire waa that the. scheme' should end in failure, and that during the time he was grading stones for the Mines Department he was receiving money from them also." There was not the slightest doubt, the Commissioner found, that stones were now continually leaving Anakie Field and finding their way to the gem markets of Europe. . On .the. point of illicit buying, the report says that even before the, present scheme came into operation, complaints were- common that illicit dealing in gems had been carried out, and it was noticeable-that these complaints did not slacken with the introduction of the Pool system. Another extraordinary feature the Commissioner discovered was that a witness named Triefus had complained that there must be still a leakage from the field of really fine blue large and email gems, which found their way in finely assorted lots surreptitiously to Paris and Germany. While Triefus was complaining, however, of this leakage of fine gems frdm the field outside the Government pool, his firm was writing to the'principal illicit dealer on the field, asking that person to open up business with E. A., and .P. , Triefus. Instancing the financial failure of the scheme, the,report: states that the total cost of gems purchased, but not including expenses of purchase and sale, was £85,853. Total sales to the end. of January, 1928, amounted to £37,472. The Mines Department was informed that the cost to the Government of the stocks on hand was approximately £48,790, and that the present value, estimated by'recent sales, was £36,580. The Commissioner intimated in the conclusion of his report that I whether the proclamation was lifted or : not, the further purchase of stones would j probably add to the present loss facing the Government.