Removing Gold From New Guinea

A EUROPEAN goldminer, A. C. Eldred. who was arrested in Sydney in Sep tember, and sent to Rabaul under es cort, to meet a charge of removing gold from the Territory of New Guinea with out giving the necessary notice to the Customs authorities, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court and was fined £lOO, early in October.

It appears that Eldred left Salamaua in January, 1935, and took with him 145 ounces of gold, without giving any no tice to the Customs authorities, and with out paying royalty.

Eldred said he brought the gold away from the Territory 4i years ago, with the intention of storing it against a “rainy day”. He had been 15 years in the Ter ritory, and had known many ups and downs. He had decided not to convert the gold into currency, but to keep it— otherwise he probably would have spent the money. He knew very little about the procedure attending the export of gold from N. Guinea, and was not aware that, when he tried to convert it into currency in Australia, there was an im mediate check-up between the currency authorities in Australia and the tax-col lecting authorities in New Guinea to see that the gold royalty had been paid.