Gold Industry
p. 148 · Read in the full issue
Dying At 35
Help Heeded for NG's Gold Industry
Port Moresby, May 31.
THE persistence with which tl Director of Lands evaded tions on the rights of nati' miners in relation to the laws of the Territory at the Led lative Council meeting in the la few days, gives the impression thi the official conscience is not qul clear on this subject.
Natives in P-NG who engage ! gold-mining have not got to tal out a miner’s right or to pay royal on gold won. Neither do they ha to fill in the forms and returns ths are forced upon European mine] giving particulars of their workin and the amount of gold produce Most native miners would be ii capable of filling in the necessa returns, anyhow.
According to the Director of Lanj in a very guarded statement, I natives have “certain privilege and there are “good reason (which he did not state) for thd However, the system as it stad is open to anomalies and abusd (See page 75, this issue).
That the present mining set-i as it relates to the different ml under which Europeans and nathi work, has not brought greater pr tests from the community is a gd indication of the unsatisfactd level to which gold mining in tj Territory has dropped.
There is small inducement to prospector these days. Alone amd commodities, gold has remained! a fixed price while working and I other costs have soared. On top] that, the Administration takes J pound of flesh in the form of a per cent, royalty and by imposij customs duty on all mini!
machinery imported.
In appealing for a better deal! the small miner and prospector, IS George Whittaker, Member for Pi Mainland, said that the royalty h been imposed in the first place ba in the 1930’s to pay for a propod Wau-Salamaua road. The road hf in fact, never eventuated —the Anj built the road from Wau to La during the war without cost to t NG Administration —but the royal itself went on.
Mr. Whittaker said that t royalty should be dropped in t case of small miners; duty should j remitted on mining equipmei that assistance should be given] prospectors: that all patrols ir new country should be accompanj by an experienced prospector; a: that rewards should be given I new gold finds.