SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 756, 13 October 1876, Page 3

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY.

No. 3.— Speculative Industry. A* our business is to deal as much as. possible with local interests we will return to the subject of gold mining. The decline of this industry is, in reality, a question of capital, the difficulty being the value of an ounce of gold and the cost of getting it. We look to the realisation of 'the Public Works Scheme as of great advantage to the goldfields, as the largo amount of labor released ’ from making* railways must seek the mining districts for employment; consequently it "will be had af‘a cheaper rate, and gold which hith rto' could not be raised with a ' profit will be made to do so, largely benefitting other interests likewise. The scarcity of employment '6n the seaboard cannot therefore but re-act most'favorably towards the interior districts in the opening up of enterprises and industries hitherto abandoned, or which have never been engaged in, while those in a languishing condition will have new life infuSfec l into'thifti. It is very much to be deplored that,'hitherto, in the great majority of cateS mining operations when conducted by joint stock companies have been attended with but little'success, and it is not to be wotadered at that capital has been scare I away owing to the distrust which has so generally beep engendered. The worst feature of this is the. want of Confidence prevailing almost everywhere, and which has done more damage to mining interests than the ill-luck attending the ventares themselves. Confidence one of the chief elements in bringing capital and labor together, either m the production of raw material or'manufactured articles.

The want of success attending mining speculations may be said to arise from tw“o causes : bad management being one, and the fictitious nature of many of the undertakings another. In regard to the first—want of knowledge as to.what is a perrnahtat or real lode and what is not so, has been the cause of a large number'd! the evils un ler which wo have suffered, and so far as our observation and knowledge of the subject guides us, it is only in the case of the Cromwell Company at Bendigo and the newly discovered quartz mines at Macetown, that this matter has been satisfactorily solved. Blit our business is not to discuss the technicalities of this subject, it having been oftentimes previously referred to in the columns of this journal. The mismanagement of which we have to complain has bedn rather more of a financial character than in regard to actual practice,’and the Mining Companies Liability Act has, without a doubt, been the cause of much of this. Not that the Act is so very imperfect in its operations, but the responsibility is so divided that the largei the number of share holders the less amount of caution has been used, and the means of companies have been squandered on objects not immediately necessary to success, or perhaps the working of the mine has been entered upon on a scale of magnitude quite inconsistent with the available capital of the company, and a financial difficulty has brought things to a stand-still. Experience should have taught people by this time that to ensure success to a public company quite as much care and judicious management is required as would be the case in a private concern, strict at tentinn to details "befog essthtial in either case.

Alining companies of a fictitious character have even been productive of more harm than where the cause of failure has arisen from bad management. In a largo nhthber of instances companies have been got up not for the purpose of ’working a mine but tb sell shares, and stock-broking influences have given them a value to which they had no title whatever. Where this has been the case purchasers bf shares have found themselves disappointed, and hs a natural consequence distrust mining Undertakings in general. We believe, however, that we have nearly seen the last of these, the opportunities for launching them not being nearly so great as formerly, while experience has enabled people to be better judges of what they aro buying. Investor's now fight shy of large script companies with their r j, thousands of shares and enormous nominal capital, when a much more modest sum would suffice. Where there aro a largo number of paid up shares as representing the value or purchase money of the property, a considerable amount of caution and Searching inquiry is necessary, for the very reason that were the thing as good as represented it is most reasonable to suppose that • the original proprietors would have found the means to have carried on the enterprise themselves, instead of asking all the world to come and help them eat the rich cake they had found. Mining for gold if properly understood Vahd systematically '.pursued is quite as safe as the majority of other speculations. Experience in Australia and California go a long way to prove this, and with the knowledge we now possess of the features bf this industry peculiar to New Zealand, there is nothing to prevent a similar satisfactory result here. Asan industrial pursuit gold mining is. without a doubt, one of .most value to the Colony; It not only means a supply of ready money, but it gives an increased value to all property which, without it, could not exist. “ Exercise your borrowing powers” has become a cant phrase when capital is wanted, but were ihnro attention to be paid to the development of our gold mines we might borrow largely from Dame Nature herself, and with this advantage. no ra-payment or interest would be demanded. If we only. exert Ourselves properly there are better times yei. in store lor gold minim? in New Zealand.