THE SEARCH FOR GOLD

Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1930, Page 2

THE SEARCH FOR GOLD

' ' ROMANTIC DISCOVERIES. One of the most interesting and perhaps romantic discoveries of quite recent times has been the location and prospecting of vast gold-bearing areas in the '.Central 'Americah country of Panama. Exclusive mining righjts have been! l obtained over several hundred square miles,of country by a British company, the Panama Corporation, Ltd., having a capital of £2,000,000. and careful prospecting has proved this ' existence' "of large areas of gold-bearing, country on which two mines, carrying very rich values, are now in the course of being opened up, and it is known that many other portions of the company’s areas contain gold and silver lodes, but which have not yet been more than very slightly prospected. What is particularly interesting is the. fact, that Indians, perhaps hundreds of years ag’o. had worked on the surface, many of the reefs in the company’s properties, and that these old workings greatly assisted their efforts in locating the various gold-bearing reefs that have so far been discovered. ' ' • It is indeed probably that the gold of the Incas of Peru, the source of which,;has • been searched for and never discoVeired, : .did not come from Peru itself;; but was acquired by trad* or seized-iffem the early Indian owners and Workers of these mines in Panama, This perhaps was : the source also of much' of the gold extorted by Spain from the Indians, in Morgan’s tiny?. One wonders what were the actual amounts of gold and silver taken by Spain from her American colonies. From what records are available, the total figures must be amazing. It is. stated that about tit; year 1500, the mines on the island of Hayna alone yielded 450,0000 z of gold aiinuallv, that the percentage retained by Philip of Spain on the gold that passed through the royal mint amounted to over 100.000 ducats per annum, but tlnere is np way of ascertaining the wealth that, was secured by private expeditions, adventurers, and local Governors, who enriched : ;by reason of their official position’ dr by accidentally , falling with *iome hoard of tiPasure among the natives, returned home to excite the envy and > cupidity of their countrymen. Old 1 ■ manuscripts state that Bernadin de Santa Clara, treasurer of Hispaniola, returned to Spain with 06,000 oz. of gold, a fair bonus, onr> would imagine, for the three or four years of his term of office. This same gentleman it is stated used to sen/e gold dust instead of salt at his entertainments. Wh|en considering England’s adventurous history in the pursuit of gold, it is interesting to note in this instance that it was French mining engineers who discovered and secured for England, and that almost under, the noses of numbers of Americans who had been working in the Panama Canal zone since the Canal was first started these extremely valuable concessions. For once the American business spirit must have 'lapsed into temporary unconsciousness. THE NEW GUINEA FIELD. The discovery of gold in New Guinea has turned out to be one of the most important and valuable discoveries since the Klondyke, but what is of particular interest is the manner in which transportation difficulties have been solved in what is probably the most; difficult and inaccessible country in the world. The Canadian-Australian Company, which controls large areas in this district, discovered that owing to the extremely mountainous country which lay between their areas and the sea coast it would cost over £200,000 to build a road (the cost of upkeep of which would be very great), having, a length , of about 90 miles, suitable for transporting the two large electric dredge's of a total weight of some hundreds of tons, with which they had decided to equip one of their areas. After exploring every other avenue, it has been decided to purchase three allmetal tri-motor, aeroplanes. The dredges will be so constructed that no piece will exceed 70C01b. and as the distance .as the crow flies is no more than 5 miles each, trip by aeroplane, will take, little more than half an hour. But for the wonderful development and modern perfection of the aeroplanes, these valuable properties would no have lain unworked and undeveloped for years. No, the lure of gold still holds. Lean, weather-beaten men still struggle into the wilds of Northern Canada, across the barren lands of Australia and South Africa, working their way up creeks an 1 rivers, ever chasing the “colours” to their source, rarely succeeding, perhaps, but never giving up; but.the romance now' li°s perhaps in the application of modern machinery, the overcoming of physicall obstaces, and the harnessing of Nature’s forces to man’s aid in recovering the wealth that has lain H Mother Earth from the beginning of things.