THE NEXT GOLD RUSH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 71, 10 August 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NEXT GOLD RUSH.

A LAND WHERE THE YELLOW METAL ABOUNDS. It is a surprising fact that, although gold is one of the most widely-diffused metals coveted by man, Nature appears to exhaust her ingenuity in hiding her precious product in inaccessible places, tvhere the deposits of glittering ore are guarded by burning deserts, as in California and Western Australia, or by Arctic solitudes, as at Klondyke and Siberia.

In almost every country, also, where gold abounds, the powers that l>e use every means to discourage gold-seekers. For instance, when Alaska belonged to Russia, the existence of gold in the Yukon and Klondyke valleys and watercourses was well known to the authorities; but as the Russians merely valued Alaska for its furs, an edict was published, and strictly enforced, punishing every person who brought in specimens of gold ore with forty blows with the knout, as it was feared that if the richness of the country in gold became known, a rush would ensue, and the haunts of the fur-bearing animals be invaded.

In Australia, the convict who first discovered gold was REWARDED WITH EIGHTY LASHES, and this reception had the effect of chilling the ardor of prospectors for nearly fifty years. The probabilities are that if the goldfields of Australia had been developed in the commencement of the nineteenth century, that country would be by now as rich and populous as the United States, and, what is more, would have thereby attracted and kept under our flag the millions of our people who have been lost to our Empire through becoming citizens of the United States. In consequence of these obstacles, imposed alike by Nature and man, the gold deposits of the world have up to the present hcon merely scratched at, and there is little doubt, now that more enlightened policies prevail, that discoveries of gold in deposits of unparalleled magnitude may be looked forward to. The gold-bearing country par excellence of the future will undoubtedly be that land of incredible barbarity, Morocco. Tn the wild and little-known regions of the south-west of that,barbaric empire, gold is known to exist in incredible quantities. This territory is the home of the savage Sus tribe, and the stories of its wealth in precious metal that the few travellers tell who have explored this country arc astounding. It is believed that there are mountains in the interior, on the summits of which huge nuggets of virgin gold are scattered about as thickly as granite rocks on a Scotch mountain. The rain of ages has slowly worn away these nuggets, hence the auriferous nature of all the rivers in the North-West of Africa and even the sands of the. seashore along the Cold Coast. In hollows in the low-lying lands vast deposits of gold-dust have accumulated, and the crops of ibis, snipe and other marsh birds that have been shot in these regions have been found to be

OLIITKRIXO WITH PRECIOUS ■METAL.

picked up along with their food and particles of gravel.

"How is it that these deposits have not-ilieoii worked?" the reader natural!v asks.

The answer is a simple one. For centuries—ever since the downfall of the Roman Empire, in fact—Morocco has been in a constant of turmoil and war. Its inhabitants thought more of robbing their neighbors than of developing the vast wealth at their feet; The advisers of the Sultan of Morocco dread the revelation to European nations that his downtrodden country contains the richest goldfields the world has over .seen.

Their reasons are obvious. They apprcliend that if it once became generally known to Europe that vast wealth was waiting to be literally shovelled up in his territory, a "rush for gold 1 ' would ensue, which he and his armies of halfarmed barbarians would lie nnaWe to stem. This "rush" would undoubtedly precipitate the inevitable scramble for Morocco on the part, of the European Powers.

iFor this reason the greatest precautions are taken to prevent the existence of the gold from becoming known. Seeking for gold, or exporting the glittering ore. is prohibited.

Tn spite of the Sultan's prohibition, quantities of gold are brought into Mazighan and Mogador by Sus tribesmen. Their methods of smuggling are novel and ingenious.

A favorite pliin is to pluck the tail and wing feathers from live fowls, remove the pith, and fill the quills with "•old dnst. The orifice at the end is next plugged, and the ipiill dipped in »mn arahic. and then reinserted in tlio. fowl. The ihird.s, prior to lieing sent to market, are confined in small cages, in which gold-dust is mixed with their food; so that it is no uncommon thing to see fowls in .Maziglun and Mogador worth several pounds, owing to the gold-dust concealed in their crops and 1 feathers.