THE VICTORIAN MINT AND NEW ZEALAND GOLD.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 343, 1 April 1874, Page 3

THE VICTORIAN MINT AND NEW ZEALAND GOLD.

(From the" Argus ') I Sever .-J piragriphs and telegrams have been going the round of the New Zealand •and Victorian papers on the probable transmission of gold in large quantities from Otago and the West Coast to the Melbourne Mint for coinage. In reference to the matter wo find on enquiry, that Mr. Yogel wrote to Mr. Francis in the month of January, wishing to know on behalf of the Generl Government of New Zealand, whether the Victorian Government would object to establish agents at Dunedin and Hokitika to receive gold, for that purpose. At the instance of Mr. Langton, within whose department the supervision of the Mint lies, Mr. Francis, we understand, wrote to Mr. Yogel in reply to say, that as the Mint was an Imperial establishment, and appointed its own officers, it was not in the power of the Victorian Government to do what was requested, but that he enclosed a copy of the new Mint charges, whereby Mr. Yogel would see that the charges for coinage at the Melbourne Mint were now brought down to the Sydney Mint charges. That closed the correspondence of the two Governments on the subject. But on further enquiry we find that the Secretary of the Otago Miners' Association wrote to the deputy-master of the Melbourne Mint in December last, complaining of a combination among the Dunedin banks to reduce tho price of gold from £8 16s. 6d. to £3 15s. per ounce, and making a request precisely similar to the one forwarded by Mr. Yogel about one mouth later. Colonel Ward's reply in substance was. that he did not see how the request of ehe Otago Miners' Association could bo complied with, as the Victorian Government appyrentla objected to the establishment of such agencies o n their own goldfiekls, but he suggested that a trial sample of gold should be sent from Otago to* the" Melbourne Mint for coinage, and added that it would then be seen whether it would answer their purpose or not to make further shipments. In reference to these consignments of gold in dust to the Mint, Colonel Ward observed :—: — " You may have to pay the New Zealand gold duty on the given weight at 2s. per ounce, but as you will receive from the Mint a statement of tho gold and silver and dross which your parcel may be found to contain, you may be refunded by your Government the amount of duty paid on the silver and the dross." With regard to Otago and West Coast gold, there would not be much chance to refund, if such an arrangement were entered into. It is of first-rate quality, according to* Ihe Secretary of the Olago MinersV^-Ssociation. some of it sent to Melbourne 'Sa.-ving fetched 81s pai ounce. Not so with the Thames or Auckland gold, however. That contains, on an average, nearly one-third silver, There has been no' communication, we understand, either between any one of Provincial Governments of New Zealand and the Victorian Government on this subject, j or between any of the Provincial Governments of New Zealand and the deputy-master of the Melbourne Mint j but it is not at all unlikely that one or more of the Provincial Governments have been set in motion by the General Government of New Zealand, and that we shall shortly be in receipt of large quantities of gold 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 complain 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 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 tho Select Committee of the House of Representatives, which sat at Wellington the session before last.