Gold Co.'s Troubles

In N. Guinea

A DISMAL story of frustrations and difficulties, created by the Wardist Administration of New Guinea, was told by the chairman of New Guinea Goldfields Ltd., at the annual meeting on January 23.

NGG Ltd. hold very large areas of rich gold-bearing country in the Bulolo Valley, on the southern side of the Bulolo Gorge, and extending up Edie Creek. The Com pany have ample funds —saved from the 1942 invasion, plus substantial war-dam age compensation—and it made, in 1946, elaborate plans for resuming gold recovery operations on a big scale.

But the programme has been defeated by a multitude of difficulties, all trace able, more or less, to the muddling Socialist policy which has brought about in New Guinea an acute shortage of ship ping, of supplies and of native labour. The chairman gave the shareholders lengthy details of these difficulties —all familiar to readers of the PIM.

Gold is the one remaining commodity which has immediate and unquestioned value in all international finance. One would have imagined that the Australian Government would have done everything possible to assist gold production—such as providing a company like NGG Ltd. with ample transportation and facilities.

But the Socialists, in their hatred of pri vate enterprise, have given this and other mining companies little real help. The Company won little gold in 1947. Its native labour force in 1947, instead of being numbered in thousands, was 247. The chairman points out that this was for tunate —if the Company had had more native labourers, they would have starved, owing to the inefficiency and inadequacy of the Government Shipping Service, on which they depend for supplies.