The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1868.

Dunstan Times, Issue 302, 7 February 1868, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1868.

Beneath the Kule of Men entirely just, the.PEX is mightier than the swoed.

A Correspondent at tlie Bannockburn sends us a very suggestive letter on the subject of water races; being the genuine production of a working miner, it is the more acceptable and in teresting, and we must say that we are really much pleased at finding the miners coming forward and stating their wants in print. It is the proper course to take to assist their cause, and there is little doubt, but that if capitalists more thoroughly understood the peculiarities of mining undertakings, the miner would not have been so long doomed to pursue his calling unaided and unfriended, entirely dependent upon his own resources, but would be in a position to receive the same outside help in common with those pursuing what is generally accepted as legitimate occupations. We quite agree with our correspondent, that the disasters which have attended most public mining Companies have deterred the capitalist from speculating, still, we imagine that such will not long continue to be the case, especially now that mining operations, —.particularly in relation to water races and sluicing companies—are becoming to he more generally un dorstood, and more especially, while the cost and length of time occupied in the construction of large undertakings can be pretty well calculated. In a great measure, the want of this knowledge, coupled with inefficient manngement, was doubtless the cause of the majority of failures ; but at the same time, had shareholders not have lost heart , because they did not get a dividend at first starting, many of the ui dertakings so ignomimously brought to a climax, had patience perhaps a little extra assistance beyond the original price of tiic shares, been rendered, they might now have been profitable am. paying concerns. '"k!"- -oncb.skn isnmnly borne out

by the companies which nave strug gled through tlreir difficulties and which has invariably have been the case, where the proprietary has been small, and the property local ! yowned. In such cases the shareholders by being resident on the spot have exer. cised a proper supervision over the works as they proceeded, and there has 'been no occasion for unnecessary expensive management, while at the same time the real merits of the un* dertaking have been generally understood. The case of the " Scandinavian Water Raoe Company" at St. Bathan's, has thoroughly exemplified this fact, after increasing their capital from time to time to five times its original amount, tlie company although struggling with almost overwhelming diificulties for nearly Hire-* years, paid at Christmas last a dividend equal to ten per cent upon their subscribed capital having previously, discharging liabilities amounting to near y three thousand pounds. Water races doubtless afford a fine field for speculation and enterprise, and we have little doubt, but that ere long, they will become exceedingly valuable properties ; they are the real capital of the goldrtelds, for without them, our means of production would be but small. A s yet water races are in their infancy, and although many of thes'- larger undertakings are now considered stupendous works, they are but puny things compared with what we shall see bye and bye ; as most as suredly, when the capitalist becomes thoroughly to appreciate the value of such proqerties, large canals will be cut from the head waters of most of the largo streams, which lip to the present time, on account Oi expense have never been tapped. It only recpiires a mutual confidence to exist between the miner and the capitalist, that the one might confer considerable benefit upon the other, and both be advantaged. We believe that this would have been the present existing relation, had the capitalist dea t directly with the miner, instead of through a set of Dunedin sharks, in the, tiliape of Share-brokers and Jobbers ; these bought of the miners for a few hundred pounds, and sold again to Joint Stock Companies for as many thousands, knowing full well at the time that then- bubble schemes would never realize a tithe of theglowing and alluring promises set forth in artfully concocted prospectuses.