NEWLY WON GOLD

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10272, 6 May 1919, Page 6

NEWLY WON GOLD

SOLD IN EASTERN MARKET. WAR-TIME EXPERIENCE IN v AUSTRALIA. Newly-won"" Australian gold is 'being sold in an Eastern market at a payable premium. That is the result a conference of gold producers of Australia, held recently in Melbourne, tor the purpose of trying to obtain more satisfactory conditions in tho disposal 0t With' tho rise in prices of material and increased labour costs, the profits in mining gold, the price of which has remained stationary, have m many oases vanished. t jlr F. B. Trude, one of the West Australian delegates to the conlerencc, while in Sydney a few days ago, explained tho position as disclosed by the conference. The object of tho conference, he said was to draw public attention to tho decline of tho gold-mining industry, to ventilate the more pressing grievances which producers laboured under, and, if possible, to suggest means whereby tlvj rot might bo stopped and the condition improved so as to render the work- of gold-mining profitable. . No other, industry has suffered so much from tho_ war. I ho cost of production has increased otl per cent., and when heavy taxation became necessary no discrimination was shown in favour of goM-mnnng companies, the average life of which is never of long duration, and w assets when once operations ceaso become at once valueless. nllk _ Mr Truda pointed out that, unlike any other produce, gold did not share in'the general rise in value created by war conditions; there was no tree market for tho sale of gold, and v hatevev premium might exist in other parts of the world, the metal could only bo disposed of through established channels and at the stauckai d i ~tc. Such conditions during war-time - maj havo boon necessary, but it was fen that this embargo might now he lilted and, without going into complicated questions in regard to currency and tho necessity that might arise for even a larger production of gold ns a security against tho inflation of paper money, it was obvious that, unless early steps were taken to improve the present conditions, gold-mining would gradually coaso. The result of the conference was the focussing of public opinion on this subject, and tho appointment of a representative commit-

tee who hare for some weeks been working in Melbourne in an endeavour to obtain something concrete from the resolutions passed.