Worth £4,000,000

Australia’s Valuation of Fiji Goldfield

From Our Own Correspondent.

SUVA, September 3.

FIJI has figured prominently in the Australian newspapers recently owing to the announcements of the Emperor Mine flotation and of the substantial in terest taken in Loloma by a London group. In both cases one of the leading mining men in Australia, Mr. W. S.

Robinson, is reported to be interested.

The romance of the Emperor Mine lies mainly in the courage shown by Mr Theodore and his associates, who spent £BO,OOO of their own money in proving its possibilities. No one in Fiji grudges them the rich reward they have reaped by their enterprise. Mr. Theodore and his associates made a most graceful ges ture in presenting to the Fiji Government a cheque for £5,000 which, it is under stood, will be applied towards increasing the medical facilities at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva.

Latest reports of the Emperor Mine are to the effect that its potentialities in crease almost with every fresh piece of development work. So far the existence of the rich lode formation has not been proved to any great depth, but the ex perts are confident that the lode for mation will live to depth. This is borne out by the situation of the Loloma mine,

which is some 200 feet below the Em peror workings.

The mine reports from Loloma continue to picture a deposit of extremely rich ore. Generally speaking, the Tavua field has become the focus of public attention.

The prices which Australian investors are willing to pay for Koroere, Loloma, Em peror and Aloha Central shares continue to increase, and the value set upon what was previously some 700 acres of barren goat country is now somewhere in the neighbourhood of £4,000,000. The mar ket seems rather to have discounted the period of time which must elapse before any of the mines reach full production, and opinion in Fiji is inclined to the view that a reaction in prices is bound to occur.