Cromwell Argus. AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell: Tuesday, December 2, 1873.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 212, 2 December 1873, Page 4

Cromwell Argus. AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell: Tuesday, December 2, 1873.

The report we published last week of the intended reduction of the price of gold to £3 15s. per ounce turns out to have been quite correct; the reduced price came into operation yesterday. The reduction is such a remarkable one, and has been made in such a remarkable manner, that it deserves considerable attention at our hands. A reduction of rather more than 1A per cent, is sufficiently large to justify us in saying that it is a remarkable one. We could have understood the lUnks wishing to reduce the price to £3 15s. 6d. per ounce ; that is. (taking imo account the reduced Government duty,) to the rate at which it ruled last year and for a few preceding years. We should have supposed it was another way of saying that the rate which was in force last year was a fair one on the buyer's part then, and still remains so, and that consequently they were willing to give that amount; that, in short, the £3 16s. rate had only been an accidental one, brought about by the exigencies of competition in the gold-buying business, or possibly by the indiscreet zeal of some too eager agent or manager. All this, we say, we might have supposed, had the reduction been of one sixpence per ounce; but one shilling, or 1J per cent., —what are we to think of it 1 Do the Bank managers really mean by this action to say that last year they were buying gold at a loss, and had been doing so for several years previously? They may mean it, but sure we are they will get no sensible person in this district to believe it. Bank directors have hardly yet reached the state of perfection in which they will carry on business, for years for the general good alone: philanthropic motives, (and very properly too,) have no effect whatever upon them. Must we not rather conclude, then, that they simply wish to swell their half-yearly dividends ; and by a combination amongst themselves, which would be revolutionary and subversive of

all good order when followed as an example by other classes of society, have determined to do it. Some classes strike for higher wages, being prepared, if their demands are refused, to do without work. The bankers have struck for higher profits, knowing well that in the nature of things their demand cannot at present be refused. The ounce is such a small thing, and one shilling is such a small amount, that only a few outside of the actual gold miners can be got to realise the aggravating shape which a reduction like this takes. The same arguments might be used, indeed, for allowing the reduction to take place without a word of remonstrance, or without opposition, which are regularly used when any proposal is made to reduce or abolish the obnoxious gold duty, by simply substituting the word "reduction" for "taxation." It might be argued thus : " The gold-fields district which produces the greatest number of ounces will certainly lose the greatest number of shillings by the reduction, but it will certainly be the most prosperous and most able to pay the amount, as it will lose only a shilling for every £3 lGs. worth of gold it produces. No other reduction would less affect the district than this. In short—(to reduce this argument to an absurdity at once) —if no gold was found in a district at all, there would be no reduction in price, and consequently no loss to the district." Let us see, however, and briefly, how . the matter will affect our district alone;

and for tho sake of argument only, we shall assume" that £3 lGs. is the fair value per ounce for the price of our gold, although we privately think even a little more than that ought to be given.' Supposing the reduction to have been made on the Ist of January, 1873, between that date and the present time we should have lost, as nearly as possible, £IO9O. Can this district afford to subscribe that Bum next year to swell the profits of two rich corporations? Would not the whole district be exactly £IO9O poorer by the transaction, although every individual miner in the district would contribute only a small share of it 1 We think we are justified in saying it is a most remarkable reduction. Besides the fact of the reduction itself, everyone, in this district at least, must be struck with the manner in which the. reduction has been made. A month ago we had two corporations trading with us in the precious article, in a state of, to a certain extent, opposition to each other; now we have them in combination. Without a word of warning, and without a word of explanation to the parties equally interested with themselves, the managers of the Banks simply intimate that such and such a reduction will take place. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Banks to dwell in unity ! There appears to us only one remedy for the monopoly which apparently is again about to be established, and it is so well put in the report prepared by the Otago Mining Commission of 1871, that we extract it in its entirety : " This Commission recommends to favourable consideration the advisability of urging upon the Colonial Legi.-latnre the establishment in thia Colony of a branch of the Imperial Mint. They are aware that the gold procured in the Colony differs in quality, not only in districts, but in gullies, yet the miners receive a uniform price. A mint would remedy this evil, and secure to the producers of the precious metal the actual value as established by the Imperial Government, and all civilised nations. They are aware that the establishment of a mint would cost a large stun of money in the first instance, and it would take a number of years before the mint could be brought into operation ; they therefore recommend, in the meantime, to favourable consideration the desirability of the estab'ishment of an assay and melting office in the Province, where miners and others could bring gold for the purpose of being melted and assayed, and the Government could then undertake to forward the gold to the neighbouring colonies for coinage, —the shipper paying all expenses, and the Government guaranteeing payment by a written document. This system, your T'ommissioners beg to state, is in existence in America, where the gold is received and melted at the Government'assay oliice at New York, and coined at Philadelphia." It would only be a temporary, remedy to establish and patronise another banking institution which might promise to buy our gold at a higher rate ; we may depend that we are treated as fairly by the present ones we have amongst us as in the Ions: run we would be by a new comer ; Unless, indeed, the newcomer would buy our gold on the same system that is proposed to be done by the Commission quoted above, charging a fixed and unalterable percentage by way of commission or profit on the ascertained value of the metal purchased. This would be doing justice between buyer and seller, and there would be no ground for holding the opinion which at present is universal on the goldfields, that the Banks make use of their united power to extort an undue profit out of the trade in gold. Bankers would still be in the position to make a profit over and above that which any others can realise, —namely, that made in their large exchange operations.