SOUTHERN CROSS PETROLEUM COMPANY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3711, 7 June 1883, Page 3

SOUTHERN CROSS PETROLEUM COMPANY.

Mr W. 11. Spackman, the managing director of the above company, has addressed the following letter to the Poverty Bay Herald : —

Sir,—l have just read your paragraph in the Evening Herald of May 21th, re Southern Cross l'etrolemn Company, and I agree -with you tliat the shareholders in Gisborne and neighbourhood arc entitled to information as much as any others, and it will always he the desire of the present Board to afford them Much. The Board, however, has to guard against reports emanating from itself or its .servants, which may he used, not in the interests of the shareholders, but very much to their prejudice, and for the purpose of .speculation in its shares. You, who are well acquainted with the past history of the company, know that reports, favorable or adverse, were promulgated from lime to time from one .source or the other, with the result that, in Christohuroh certainly, the whole business of oil getting and everything connected with it became at last to bo looked upon with suspicion and distrust. When the present Board took office it determined that at all events no information should be obtained from it or its employees and used for the purpose of speculation, and this resolution of the Board was conveyed to Mr Stubbs. From time to time the Board of Directors sends a circular to the shareholders stating what they arc doing and have done, and they may rest assured that when any news is worth their having they will receive it. The result of this determination is already appearing. Information given by the Board is received with credence," and the shareholders' property holds a firm position in the market. Only last week various lots of shares were offered by auction—lnsurance, Brewery, and others, and some two hundred .Southern Grose".' The Southern Gross, out of all offered, alone were sold to the outsido public. Mr Stubbs' recent visit to the works, and his report on the deposits of the paraflin mineral, have, of course, been received by the Directors, and as soon as the steps they are now taking to prove its value as an asset or otherwise are completed every shareholder, big or little, Avill be immediately informed of the result. The Directors hope to have very good news to tell their shareholders, but at present, it being only hope and not certainty, thoy are waiting till those hopes are either confirmed or disappointed before giving information which might excite expectations not afterwards realised.