The Price of Gold.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 220, 27 January 1874, Page 6

The Price of Gold.

The Mount Ida Chronicle publishes a memo- j ranch]in addressed by J. B. Bradshaw to the Superintendent as far back as 1870, which is j pertinent to the reduction in the price of j gold, which has lately occupied our attention, i We condense and make the following extracts j from the memo.:— "The question of its price, or value, and quality, is, or should be, regulated by all Govcrnments. The Imperial Government of England has, under various Acts, made such arrangements, s<> that every person who has j gold to sell can get for it its real value. No banking institution is better served than aj private person, except the Bank of England. | In order that every convenience should be given to the public, the Government has made arrangements with the Bank of England, to purchase all bullion in bar, at the rate of £3 17s. 9d. per ounce standard of twenty-two carat fine. For this consider*- j tion the Government undertake to mint gold exclusively for the Bank of England, at the rate of £'3 17s. lOkl. per standard ounce of twenty-two carats fine. You will see by this arrangement that the Government of the British Empire has protected the seller of j gold from any commercial influence or com-! bination as to its price. This arrangement

has been modified of late by the establish-1 merit of a branch of the Imperial mint—con-1 ducted by Imperial officers—at Sydney ; and another branch in course of completion at i Melbourne—at which places any person may j go direct, and have his gold coined into metallic currency—which shall circulate le- j gaily throughout the British Empire—at the rate of £3 17s. lOid. per ounce standard. "In the United States the Government j has established an assay office at New York, and a mint at Philadelphia, for the benefit j of the public. The Government of America 1 has admitted the, principle of the necessity of | regulating the price of the chief measure of j value ; and, also, that any person (or Government) who, by diminishing its weight, and j increasing the proportion of alloy in coin, is i a swindler of the worst stamp. It has, there- j fore, taken the matter into its own hands ; ! and, in order that the officers of the estab- \ j lishmont shall be independent, and free from j | political influences, they arc well paid and I j hold office for life, subject to good conduct j | and competency. To the assay office of New j ' York every kind of gold is brought to bo | ! valued by every conceivable class of persons, j The greater portion comes through brokers! I and banks, but much is brought by miners j | from California, and by emigrants from every' ! land. The gold having been weighed thede-' ! positor takes a receipt for it. This receipt is

I beautifully engraved, and 13 signed by a re- • sponsible officer of the Government. It is numbered, the weight of the parcel is marked in plain figures and in writing, but no value is marked upon it, as this is the object of assay. " The next stage of the process is melting. This is called "deposit melting," which gives the nett weight of the deposit as bullion free from dirt.

" Tlio next stage is the most delicate. It is the determining of the fineness of the deposit by a very delicate analysis performed on the assay slip. The assayer who performs the assay filta out the report stating.the fineness of the gold, and forwards it to the responsible office of the Government, where the necessary calculations are made, and then sent to the Superintendent for his verification. This memo, is made out in tabular' form, and printed in crimson. The memo, for the deposit reads as follows : No. 1764. Memo, of Gold Bullion deposited in the United States Assay Office, at New York, the 7th day of June, 1870, by John Smith. description, Californian—grain ; weight before melting, 1110.97 ounces ; after melting, 1110 ounces; fineness, 923; value of the gold, £4OOO Deductions for melting, assay, coinage, freight, insurance, duty, &c.: £l5O. Nett value : £3850, I certify th it the nett amount of the above deposit is £3850, payable at the United States Assay office, only on presentation of the receipt of a corresponding date and number heretofore issued. "Before the American war, there was always"a l large sum of money on hand at the assay office, so that it could cash the Superintendent's warrant at once. Now, however, the depositor must wait for his money until the bullion is sent to Philadelphia and coined. This takes from twenty to thirty days. This delay is not considered a hardship, as money can always bo raised on the warrant. "I have given you the working of the systems—one in England and the other in America. The American one could be adopted here—with or without an assay office—in connection with the Sydney mint, to which the bar bullion or grain gold could be forwarded by Government for coinage for the depositor. The delay would not bo greater than between New York and Philadelphia. "I may mention that gold in New Zealand varies in quality, not only in each Province and district, but in each stream and tributary. We have gold here worth £4 per ounce, and gold worth only £3 15s. We have gold at.Auckland worth £2 10s. per ounce, and gold at Westland worth £4 per ounce. The same variation applies to Australia and America. The banks here have it in their power to give what price they like for gold; and having that power, I am of opinion they buy at a very good margin of profit. Gold, instead of being bought here according to quality, is bought, like potatoes, at what price tlie purchasers choose to give. "It was suggested to me some time ago, by one of the superintendents of the Australasian banks, when I was moving in this matter, that an assay office was all that was wanted. I need riot tell you that an assay office only tolls what you should get, but a mint fixes the price.'-' In conclusion, Mr Bradshaw says : " If the increase of the value of a production of a country is a benefit, to that country, there can be no gainsaying the fact that, to increase the value of gold—an industry which two-thirds of the people of this Province are living on—would be a national benefit."