This century"

Tavua “The Find of This century"

Pat Costello on Discoveries and Rewards

Letter t 0 the Editor T REFER to your article in September I. , ,r, , , . , * lssue and that P art which reads: “There seems to be no doubt that a rich, new gold-mining industry has been established in Fiji, on the northern side of Viti Levu Its birth however was i ,'T mun, nowever, was attended by so much mad speculation— particularlv in Melbourne—that the ac- Pduicuidiiy ill ivieiuoui ae—tnat vne ac tual value of development has been under suspicion: many people thought that it was impossible that anything worth while could exist when so many rogues and near-rogues were active.”

To this, I take strong exception.

Bill Borthwick and I are responsible for the birth of the Tavua Goldfields, and Messrs. E. G. Theodore, John Wren, Pat Cody and Frank Packer are respon sible for the development of the field Bill and I have our limitations, and our resnons i b imies ceased after months of responsipinties ceasea alter montns or prospecting, when we indicated that gold occurs in the locality, with a good chance G f living down. Dr. Loftus Hill then came and reported favourably on the field After that, the Development Syndicate came along and tested the area, and did so with their own money; and, up to the time of the Emperor float, an amount in the region of £lOO,OOO had been expended b y the Syndicate. I should be very J

pleased to have the addresses of any other four people who are prepared to risk £lOO,OOO in a gold venture.

It is possible that the people who spent this amount of money may obtain a mil lion pounds in return, or, roughly, 10 to 1 on their outlay. As the ratio of good gold mines are about two in a hundred, I contend that the Syndicate are en titled to what is coming to them; and Bill and I are satisfied with the crumbs that fall from the table.

It must also be remembered that some of Australia’s leading experts condemned the area. But Dr. Loftus Hill’s summing up of the field, when only a few trenches had been opened up, is something of which he should be justly proud.

I maintain that, at Tavua, there is what may be termed the “Magic Circle,” which embraces the Emperor, Loloma, Koroere, Cardigan, the 30-acre block and Dolphin areas; these properties have excellent chances of success, and, outside those areas, time, hard work and development alone will tell.

Many people who felt sorry for Bill and myself in the prospecting stages of Tavua have now turned their sorrow into affec tion, and are asking whether it is not possible to obtain a holding on what they term the ‘“ground floor.” In other words, they “want something for nothing.”

I still maintain that Tavua is the find of this century.

I am, etc.,

Pat Costello.

Suva., October 12, 1935.

Mr. William G. Wiedermann, of the Melanesian Mission, arrived in Sydney from Rabaul by the Malaita on Septem ber 26. Since 1933 he has been stationed at Arawe, New Britain.