TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 248, 5 December 1873, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

Mb. Vogel is reported in .'Hansard' to have said, speaking on the reduction of the gold duty, "He did not, belifve that if a mint were established in'tins idoloriy'the miners would get much more for their gold than they did at present, because there was much more open competition between the banks here in that respect than in Australia, where the purchase of gold was carried on chiefly by agreement and the price which miners got for their gold was regulated by exchange. He imagined that, as there was so much competition between the mints .in Australia, either of them would be willing to establish agencies in New Zealand." The same could not now 36 paid, for we learn with regret that the banks have agreed together to reduce the price of gold from the Ist December. In future, we understand, the price is to be £3 15s. per ounce. It is well known that the banks, making a profit, as .they do, out of their exchange operations, can afford to buy at higher rates than other purchasers. A similar attempted extortion by the Australian banks was the cause of the Melbourne being vestablished. This mint not established because of the scarcity of gold, for the Sydney mint could produce all that was requisite, but the fact was, Mr. Yogel stated, " that the banks coalesced, and did not give to the miners such a price for the. raw gold as it was worth." cohere can: be very little dofcbt that the same line of action is being adopted in ®ew Zealand at the present time, an . attempt that should not be • allowed quietly to be, as far as the banks are concerned, successful. . The Miners' Associations might jvery well concert together, and use. their influence in the different districts to prevent any gold whatever being sold to the banks who choose to co-operate to fleece the miners. Communications might be sent by the Central Association direct to the Melbourne and Sydney Mints, the managers of which,,or either of them,"would no doubt establish an agency to which all the gold could be aent, a fair price be realised, and a nice little game upset.

■ The Chief Commissioner at the Waste Lands. Board appears -*to have adopted a peculiar line of argument in consideration of an application fro/n St. Bathans that the inquiry into tli& kale of that township should be held at thl place itself, or rather that the cost of , suclgfoca! inquiry should not be thrownirpon people. lie said the cost ofJ^^ctuj^K ou ' e (abuut

and he appeared generally to ri<licul<;' tluidea.of the District -Board bring a rnoV!.'-. able body The least inquiry would have tuld the Commissioner that many hundred pounds havri been spent by the holders : of this section—or group of sections—each of whom has to pay £.5 per annum. There might be some reason in charging the expenses to a frivolous objector, in cases that might- arise where art objection was frivolous, but thdre can be none in throwing a heavy payment upon men who have suffered a very severe aiid protracted moneybleeding through nothing but the dilatoriness of the Land Office itself in seeing to the survey of the town.* We shall have to recur again to the constitution of this District Board of Enquiry, as appointed under the Act. ;