THE MINING INDUSTRY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4618, 29 October 1923, Page 4

THE MINING INDUSTRY.

GOVERNMENT PROSPECTING). MR POLAND’S VIEWS. In a discussion on the Mines Statement in the House Mi- Poland, member for Ohinemuri, expressed the following views :— “ I think it is advisable on an occasion like this that we should try and put put befpre the Minister one or two of the important features in connection with gold-mining. The one I wish to stress particularly is the question of prospecting for fresh goldfields. The Minister knows quite well that in recent years there have been no new discoveries in New Zealand of any importance, not because no fresh discoveries can be made, but because there is no proper inducement held out for men to spend money in an endeavour to make fresh discoveries. There is, in the Auckland province, a feeling of great dissatisfaction with the Mining Act in its present condition. A petition is in course for signatures from all over the Hauraki Goldfield and in Auckland itself asking that the whole Mining Act be overhauled, and that fresh conditions be laid down under which men can acquire a mining title. The contention is that this country does not compare favourably in its legislation with other British States — that the Australian and South African laws are more favourable for men who wish to put money into mining ventures. We all kno z w that any expenditure in connection with mining is of a hazardous nature. The reward is certainly great occasionally, but the risk is also very great. The gold-mining industry is of such importance to this or any other country that if the Government can do anything within reason to foster it, it should be done. Take the position in connection with some of the prospecting going on in my own district. As the Minister knows quite well, men have been working in the Waitekauri district for some years under mining titles. After the syndicate has spent a considerable sum of money a farmer comes along and applies for the freehold of the land beneath which the miners are working, and obtains a freehold title free of all restrictions as to mining, and immediately he gets it he lodges: an objection to mining, and also claims the rent. This position has been going on for the last few years, and no finality has been reached satisfactory to the mining interests. Other men are , applying for the freehold of land in mining districts, and unless the Minister takes steps to see—l cannot say whether he has done so in ths last few months —that, no freehold title shall be granted over what is an active mining fluid without safeguarding the rights of prospectors or of men who wish to take up,bona fide mining under the surface of that area, you cannot expect people tp go out prospecting or to put their money into a mining field. The Mayor of Walhi visited Wellington last Juns and interviewed the Minister pn this question, and requested that something should be done to put the position oira satisfactory footing, but, so far as I am Aware, nothing has been done in that direction.

“In regard to Government assistance, we know we have a very valuable Geological .Survey Department at work in this, country. It has been at work for .the last -fifteen or sixteen years, but it has not provided the practical results that, should have accrued from suxjh a department. It has done a lot of work in various localities —surveying geologically the country—but I have always contended that there should be a prospecting party associated with the Department in all its work, and that it should be a Government prospecting party, paid by the State just as the other officers of the State are paid—hot the £1 15s a week, offered to a man to go out prospecting haphazard anywhere. in th->'country, a man who might know little about prospecting or nothing j at all' about it. If, associated with the Geological Survey Department, there were a number of trained men 1 who ctfuld come along behind the Geological Survey branch and thoroughly prospect any portion of the country tha,t in the opinion of the Department was worthy of prospecting, 1 believe we would get valuable results. In Karangahake, as the Minister knows, we have"had some very prosperous mining in past days, but the two principal companies—the Crown and the Talisman —closed down in recent years, and notwithstanding that fact there are a number of good men in the district who are satisfied there is any amount of payable ore in the Karangahake field to-day. There are not only mining experts, but ordinary miners of experience., who to-day aye spending their money in prospecting and investigating that field. Those men deserve enpouragement, and the Minister, within the limit of the Mining Act, is prepared to help them, but I hold that something further is required if the Government reapy desires results. The Talisman battery of forty heads has been dismantled all but ten stampers, which have been retained, and the man who owns the plant and the water power, also the whole of the works in connection with the Talisman mine, is prepared to sell the plant at a very low price to the Government for an experimental plant or to enable parties of prospectors to ha.ve their ore treated at cost price, so that there will be no less to the State, but also that there will be n o profit. If they could do that there, would be a big incentive provided for prospecting in that district. Then e is no doubt that there are millions a f pounds’ worth of gold and silver in the Karangahake and Waihi fields u nprospected and undiscovered. We I lave only to look at the results of mi’ ning operations in the Ohinemuri disl trict for the past thirty years to realist s this. Last year I asked for a return c >n this subject, and it shows that dt iring t.be thirty years ending the 31st March, 1922, the total gold and silvt :r production of the Ohinemuri di strict t to 45,206,000 ozs, ~Vhe total g nld duty paid was £461,703* total goldfi elds revenue

£127,053, and the total dividends paid amounted to £6,600,061. The actual return received in interest by the people who put their money into the field was £6,500,000. But what assistance was given by the State during that thirty years in the ■ Ohinemuri district? Only £7,800. That is the figure given by the Government’s return : £7,800 was expended by way of assistance during thirty years in which over 45,000,000 oz. of gold and silver was produced. In the year ended the 31st March, 1922, the Government spent £5B in assistance towards prospecting in Ohinemuri district. I would point out that although the gold production has been decreasing year after year in New Zealand —taking last year as a sample of the previous years—we find that for the year ended 31st March, 1922, there was a total gold production in New Zealand amounting to only £612,0'00, of which the Ohinemuri district produced £310,000, or more than one-half the production of the whole -'f the Dominion. The Thames field produced £l4oo', and the Coromandel field £730. Therefore Ohinemuri produced £310,000 but of a total production of £612,000. Yet the Minister’s idea of assisting prospecting in that district is to spend £5B in the twelve monthsI say that it is time the Government recognized the' value of the mining industry and made an earnest endeavour to increase production. In order to provide proper and substantial assistance and encouragement, the Government should overhaul the whole of their mining legislation and adopt a different system of granting assistance towards prospecting, which would put the work on a better footing. Tp-day the industry is languishing and dying. Men who have held claims for fifteen or twenty years, and who after spending all their own money, and spending also all the money which they could command belonging to other people,, are giving up the work as an entirely impossible job under present conditions. I do not know whether the Minister realises what his Mining Act,' and regulations are like. They fill a volume probably bigger than any other single Act on the statute-book of this country, but they do not provide suitable legislation for carrying on this difficult industry at the present time and under present-day conditions. I hdpe that during the coming recess the Minister will go into this question of overhauling the mining legislation, that he will compare the present Act with the legislation in force in other countries, and do what is possbile to put the industry on a proper footing. The Hon. Mr Anderson.—lnstructions have already 1 been given. Mr Poland.—l am glad to hearthat. I again say, as I have said in this House on many., previous' occasions, that in my opinion there is nothing the Government could do that would give a greater impetus to mining in any district than the equipment.of an up-to-date State battery of about tea stampers. That would not only induce hundreds of men to put their money and time into prospecting, bu.u would enable them to get capital from outside sources for the thorough prospecting of many fields in the Ohinemuri district, and I firmly believe there is yet a bright future before mining in that district.”