GOLD MINING

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 69, 18 September 1930, Page 17

GOLD MINING

DYING INDUSTRY

INQUIRY SOUGHT

An inquiry into the present position of the gold mining industry was urged in a petition presented to Parliament yesterday on behalf of H". E. Stevens,-of Ciyde, and 1056 others.

The petitioners stated that for many years gold-mining was one of the leading industries of Kow Zealand, and that in the past the gold which was exported to the extent of over £93,000,000 •went to pay interest and debts when other exports were few and of less value. In 1914 the export of gold -was stopped by the Government, and paper was made,.legal tender and ss3ued in large quantities. On the signing of the Armistice la IMS gold was in some countries, fetching high prices, but the gold-miners of New Zealand were not allowed to receive these as the export of gold-was forbidden for about a year after the signing of the Armistice. *The petitioners stated that they believed that while' miners were thus stopped from exporting the Government permitted some of the banks to export gold, and such, banks during that period earned large profits which should.properly have gone to the producers of the gold.

The petition stated that the gold mining industry was dying, despite the fact that there were still great areas of gold-bearing country in New Zealand. The petitioners asked the House to take into consideration the present state of ■the gold mining industry, and that efforts should be made to place it on a payable, basis, either by granting a bonus or subsidy on gold produced or by giving increased assistance "to bona ide prospectors.