GOLD SHIPMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 8 July 1931, Page 8

GOLD SHIPMENT

1 pOSrTION OF THE RESERVE!. I 'j.* SYDNEY, June 25. I Tlic shipment of £5,000,000 worth of gold from Australia, authorised by the Act passed last week, will raise to £36,735,513,' the total amount of gold exported from Australia to London since October, 1929, for the service of the oversea national debt. The statutory minimum gold reserve provided by the Act passed in 1924 was 25 per cent, of the total note circulation. The latest shipment will reduce this minimum to 18.98 per cent. The position of the Australian reserve will not be- so unfavourable as some people have attempted to make out, and is regarded by most experts as perfectly “safe.” In the meantime, production of new gold in Australia is increasing each month, and it is pointed out that on the basis of recent output figures it should be possible to restore the reserve to the statutory 25 per cent, within two years. Unless further exports of gold become necessary in order to meet the great overseas debt, the position may he adjusted' even sooner. For instance, in the first five months of the current year the production of gold in Victoria was 16,386 oz. fine, valued at £69.608—ail increase in value of nearly £30,000 compared with the same period last year, it is considered that tile activities of prospecting parties that are assisted by the State are mainly responsible for this happy result. Similar increases are shown in New South Wales and Western Australia.

Although the romantic period °f Western Australia’s history late in the l«>st century when the gold rushes were at their height is not being repeated, the r e is more activity on the goldfields there today than for many years pest. The depression and the gold bonus account for this. State batteries are experiencing a congestion of ore, and private' individuals are being asked to assist. The forward move in the Western Australian goldfields is regarded as having begun in January, 1030. Important new fields have been discovered. Among the most talked of is that at Larkinville. where rich alluvial gold has been found in appreciable ' quantities. From the inception of the field a. few months ago thousands of men have worked upon it.