BONUS FOR GOLD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1064, 30 August 1930, Page 10

BONUS FOR GOLD

MINING INDUSTRY'S PLIGHT PETITION CIRCULATING A petition seeking a bonus for the support of the gold-mining industry is being circulated throughout New Zealand by the Otago and Southland Gold Mining Industrial Union of Employers. Copies of the petition have been sent to every mining company office in the country, and it is expected that many thousands of signatures will be obtained before the petition is presented to Parliament. Tho petition states that those signing it are gold miners, or those interested in gold mining. It points out that for years gold mining was one of the leading industries of New Zealand. In the past, gold, which was exported to tin ex tent of mon £93,000,000, went to pay interest and debts when the exports of ’he country were much fewer and of less value than at present. In 1914 the export of gold had been stopped by tho New Zealand Government. Paper was made legal tender, and issued in large quantities. At the armistice on November 11. 1918, gold in some countries jvas fetching high prices, but the export from New Zealand was stopped for yet another year, so that the producers lost the benefit of high prices overseas. Tho petitioners believed that, while gold miners were prevented from exporting, the Government permitted some of the banks to export gold, and they during that period made large profits, which should properly have gone to the producers of the gold.

Tw o Parliamentary Committees had re ported in favour of redress of th grievances, but nothing had been don;

and, as a result, the mining industry had received a severe setback. Working costs and costs of commodities in New Zealand, had risen very considerably since 1914 and, as gold remained at a standard price, an ounce would exchange for only half the amount of commodities it did before the war. As a consequence of the cost of all repairs and wages having doubled, gold-mining had been dying rapidly in New Zealand, and in some other countries, the production of gold had almost stopped. Gold was required by the world to carry on trading. It had to be obtained and there were still great areas of gold bearing country in the Dominion that could be worked if gold could be exchanged for the same amount of commodities as in pre-war days. In Australia gold miners were demanding a bonus on the ground that without that, or other, adequate assistance, gold mining was doomed. The whole community would benefit by a revival of the industry in New Zealand, and it would do much to alleviate the unemplo3'ment problem. The petitioners therefore asked Parliament, taking into consideration the present state of The industry, to put gold mining on a payable basis, either by granting a bonus or subsidy on gold produced, by giving increased assistance to prospectors, or by such other adequate means as might be desirable.