THE VICTORIAN MINT AND NEW ZEALAND GOLD.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 266, 10 April 1874, Page 3

THE VICTORIAN MINT AND NEW ZEALAND GOLD.

(' Argus ') Several paragraphs'and'telegrams have'l been,going the round of the New Zealand i and V.ictorian papers on the,probable:trans- i mission of gold in large quantities from ! Otago and the West Coast to the Mel - i bourne Mint for coinage > ' Ln reference to i the,- matter we find, on inquiry; that Mr Vogel wrote to :Mr. Francis in ' .the month I of January, wishing to know, cn behalf of i the. General Government of New-Zealand, whether the Victorian Government would i object to establish agents'at'JDunedin and i iJokitika to receive gold for that''purpose | At >the instance • of \ir. • Langtoh, 5 within whose- department - the of the i Mint lies, Mr Francis, we understand, wrote to 'Mr Vogel in reply to say that, i as the Mint was an Imperial establish- i merit, and appointed its own officers, it i was not in the power of the Victorian Go vernment to,do .what was requested, .but that he enclosed a copy of tHe'new'. Mint •charges,, whereby. ,iVI r ■.Voce! ,-would see that the charges t'cr coinage;, at the Melbourne .Mint wi'ie now brought down to •tiie Sydney •••Mint-charges.-•'.•That"-'dosed the correspondence of the" two Governments on the subject' liut oh further inquiry we find that the. Secretary of the, Otago Miners' Association wrote to th'V deputy-master of the Melbourne Mint in December hist, complaining of arcombination among!the banlcs to reduce the price of gold, from-£3-16s .(jd-to.£3 15;.-per .•ounce/ and;-m:;king a request precisely; si - •milar to the one. forwarded by, Mr. Vogel "about one..,month later. C^l/>nel: ; ,Y\ r ar'd"s reply in substarice 'was that- he" drd'nnt see how the'request of t!ie .'Otago'''Miners!: Association could s be complied with, as the Victorian Government .apparently objected to the establishment v of. such agencies on their own she suggested

tlial a tiial sample of gold should be sent fiom Ohigo to the Melbourne Mint for coinage, and (added "that it would then be seen whether it would answer their pur- | pose or not to make further shipments.' In reference to these consignments of gold in dust "to the' : Mint,-Colonel Ward observed:—" You may have tb pay the New Zealand gold duty on the given weight at 2s. per< ounce, but you; will .receive from the Mint a statement of the gold andsilver and dross which your parcel may be found to centain. you 'may be refunded by your Government the amount of duty paid,on the silver' and" dross. With regard to Otagp and \\ est Coast gold, there •would not be much chance of refund, if such an arrangement were ever entered, into. It is of first-rate quality, according to the Secretary of the Otago Miners' Association, some of it sent to Melbourne fetched 81s. per ounce. Not so with the Thames or Auckland"gold, however. That icontains, .on an average, nearly one-third silver. .. There has been no communication, we understand, either between any one of the" Provincial Governments of New Zealand and the Victorian Government on' this subject;' or between any of the Provincial Governments of New Zealand and,the'deputy-master of .the Melbourne Mint; but it is not at'all unlikely that one-or more of the Provincial Governments have been set in motion I by the General Government of New Zea- | land,' and' that we shall shortly ' be in • re-' ceipt of largp quantities' m ar,\,[ thence for' coinage The late reduction in our Mint charges will be greatly in favor of the New Zealand diggers, and none. of them , will omplain of the-allowance of ss. per' "ounce for all the fine silver in their gold ,over two per cent.- • Then, again, the facilities for communication between Melbourne and Otago are so much greater than those between Sydney and Otago., as to insure for us the preference. Next, in fact,- to-having a ''Mint 4 of their own, the diggers on the Otago and West Coast Goldfields have always been desirous of availing themselves of the advantages of ours "This they showed in the" evidence taken before the Select Committee~of the House' of Representatives, whieh- sat at Wellington the session before last. A