THE WORLDS GOLD SUPPLY the statistics furnished by the director of the mint show a very large increase in the gold output of the world this year iho total will reach the neighborhood ol 01 in 1896 the total was only tho average rate of increase being about a year the transvaal Is mainly responsible for the enlarged output during tho war the industry practically stopped but as soon as peace was declared the mines began at once to open up and they are now discharging at the rate of about a year which Is far in advance of the results that preceded the war even this large output is certain to be speedily surpassed as labor difficulties are settled and new mines are opened under tho stimulus of peace and stable government enormous deposits are known to exist and it will be a long time before the transvaal shows any sign of exhaustion australia is now the largest gold producing country in the world her cleanup clean up for 1904 was the united states including alaska comes next in order with and the transvaal follows with SO in spite of large increases there is not much cause tor tho doleful predictions that hav been recently circulated to the effect that the worlds gold supply would be boon so large that gold would ceass to be a precious metal and therefore unfit for use as money the increase is certainly large but it is not large enough to affect values or to threaten stability ot a gold basis civilization would bo serious fx embarrassed if it had to look elsewhere for a medium of exchange there is in fact no other metal place of gold buic disturb ourselves with that ars unlikely to occur nor prepare to cross streams that are not in sight