GOLD PRODUCTION DECLINE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20735, 20 February 1939, Page 6

GOLD PRODUCTION DECLINE

Gold production in New Zealand, recently looked upon as one of the most hopeful avenues for the employment of workless men, has this year shown a very disappointing decline. Despite the Government’s assistance to prospectors, gold produced for export in 1938 was worth only £1,057,434, at £7 an ounce, compared with the value of £1,423,348 produced in 1937 and £1,385,003 in 1936. Owing to the poor returns many of those assisted by the Government have lost heart and are drifting away from prospecting and digging.

Although the gold industry has declined sadly from the days of the great discoveries, production last year was not much less than the average yearly output for the past three-quarters of a century. The total production of gold for export since 1857 is £103,740,308. In those years the industry has witnessed many exciting days, and many disappointments. Prospectors are always hopeful, and it is not impossible that rich discoveries may yet be made, but the country has been so thoroughly combed that the chances become less and less as the years go by. To-day the most profitable means of production seems to be by the more prosaic method of dredging, which promises to give worthwhile returns for many years to come.

Attempts have been made to work lower grade fields, and the high price of gold indicated the possibility of considerable development on those lines, but the output in the past year shows that not a great deal of success has attended the efforts. Removal of the gold tax has been advocated as an inducement to greater production, and in view of the decline shown, the Government may be persuaded to make that concession to the industry.