Goldfields

Tax Burdens On

Killing the Goose that Lays Golden Eggs

(To the Editor.) Sir, — Mr. Freeman did not go far enough when he wrote under the above head ing.

What about the man who finds the gold? The prospector has now to pay into the Administration two years’ wages, for each boy, before he can sign him on, plus his fare home. With issue and signing-on fees this amounts to about £18 per boy, and as he requires ten boys, he has to have £180 to pay into the Administration before he can go out to look for gold, or work it—if he knows where it is.

Until recently he had to pay £20 per boy to the recruiter, but they are now a lot cheaper. But that is useless to him, if he has to find another £180, to remain idle for two years, when it could be put to a lot better purpose.

It would keep him in the bush a good many months, looking for gold, as it did the men who found Edie Creek and the Bulolo.

There are a large number of men on the field now, who are out of work.

Many know where there is payable gold, and there are others who are willing to go out and look for it; but, owing to the action of the Adminis tration, they are unable to work, though willing to do so. This seems a bit strange, when we understand that Australia is doing its best to find work for the unemployed, and we are ad ministered from Australia.

Let the Commonwealth pass a Bill that every employer has to pay his employee two years’ wages in advance, and see if the Government will last 24 hours in power.

The reason given for this action is that so many men are going south, without paying their boys off. But Ad ministration and Expro. Board officials were the chief offenders. Now, it is men employed in Rabaul who forget to pay their houseboys, but not the miners.

The miner is a speculator, gambler and a sport. He works with his boys and looks after their interests more than the white-collar-and-black-tie man of Rabaul.

If it were not for the gold there would be no Rabaul now, owing to the bottom having dropped out of copra.

It was the miner who found the gold; it is the miner who goes into the bush and brings the wild native into a state of semi-civilisation—not the Adminis tration; the miner who stands all the hardships and opens up the country, and finds the gold for Australia to pay the interest on the money it owes.

I am, etc..

A. Le Breton Mount.

Wau, Salamoa. New Guinea.

March 20, 1931.