MELTED GOLD

Hokitika Guardian, 24 June 1932, Page 8

MELTED GOLD

PAYMENT OF EXPORT DUTY. ACT OF 1882. The present boom in the gold mining industry in the Dominion, and in the meiting down of gold trinklets, has given the South Island an advantage over the North Island that was probably never contemplated when the Gold Duties Act,was passed by Parliament in 1882. That Act, which- was made operative in the North Island only, provided for a duty of 2s per ounce troy on all gold exports, the amount of the duty to be paid to the local authority of the county or borough in which the gold was produced.

The original legislation lias never been repealed, but in 1926 an additional duty of 6d per ounce troy was imposed on gold exports, and it was applied to both the North and the South Islands. This duty, however, was not payable on gold produced by alluvia] mining or dredge mining. A curious feature is that gold not produced in New Zealand and exported from the North Island is subject to a duty of 2s an ounce troy,- while gold in this category can be- exported duty free from the South Island. JEWELLERY AND COINS. Legislation passed in 1920, and which is still in force, provides that gold coin shall not he melted down or used except as currency. During the present rush of gold-buying, prices up to 21s each ane being paid in Christchurch for sovereigns, but it is illegal to melt down these coins, and most of them find their way to Auckland, where they are sold at about 26s each

Ito persons travelling to Australia. I There are no restrictions, however, j against the melting down of United States and South African gold coins, ior of damaged coins that have beien 1 used on medals. The great bulk of the gold in the form of jewellery that : is now being retrieved by the gold buyj ere was manufactured in England ; and was imported into New Zealand. J Large quantities of this class of gold | have been exported during the past | few months to the Royal Mint at Mel- ' bourne, and the Sheffield Smelting f Company in England, which are the principal buyers of melted gold from New Zealand. HOW PRICE IS FIXED. The Melbourne Mint fixes its price for melted gold every Tuesday, and in the period from May 2to May-6 it was paying £6 7s 3£d an ounce for standard or 22-carat gold, and £6 18s lOd an ounce for fine o.r 24-oarat gold, lees a charge -of 7d an ounce up 1° -500 ounces for handling. No license is required for the export of gold except the usual license in accordance with the Exchange Credits Pool, hut the exporter must make a declaration that the gold consists of melted down jewellery that was not made in New Zealand..

Most of the gold mined in New Zealand is refined >at tho assay branches of the Bank of New Zealand in Dunedin and Waihi, and it cannot be bought by anyone in the Dominion except by license. Consequently it is nearly all exported, although some manufacturing jewellers have licenses and huy it in ingots from the Bank of New Zealand at Dunedin or Waihi. IDLE WEALTH RELEASED. A Christchurch giold buyer /stated that as a result of the melting down of old jewellery, a great deal of wealth that had formerly been lying idle was being turned to useful account. In the past few months he had paid out over £3OOO for old jewellery which ho had bought, for melting down. At first, lie said, gold buying was largely a .speculative business, and those engaged in it did not have any proper basis on which to’ fix thieir prices i but recently prices had advanced, and there had been a consider-, aide increase in the number of persons wanting to turn old jewellery into cash. With regard to the duty of 2s an ounce on melted gold exported from tlie North Island, he remarked that he was at a loss to account for this discrimination between the two islands, hut in any case it acted as a stimulus to the business in the South Island.

When the Gold Duties Act was passed in 1903, the Minister of Mines stated in Parliament that when the gold duty was abolished in New Zealand with the exception of the 'North Island, the inhabitants and ratepayers of the Thames, Coromandel, Waihi and Paeroa districts decided that it war, necessary to retain the gold duty a« a means of lielning the local bodies to construct tracks and roads over very difficult, parts of the country. At that time Waihi was receiving an average of G 1 -1.000 a year from gold revenue, the whole of which was .spent within He borough. The new Act provided for an apoortioiimenf of the revenue as between the borough and the Oliincmuri Coutv.

Wo are having a v«ui<lotTnl ton > witlour new season’s millinery it is menir ~isod *•> he the finest display ,( most reason"lit' prims If have not nh'erdv ''ailed p'esv ■ d Solirnder alto Co have maihr.l nil goods in plain fi-oires t meet | l-o limes j : ; aiumst m.mihlr prof.l ■ Adi I