THE Evening Star. FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1957, 13 August 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1869.

North and South of Otago there is a feverish excitement after quartz mining. The discoveries at the Thames and the richness of the stone in a few of the claims there have set prospectors to work in other provinces, and from Taranaki, Wellington, Canterbury, and Invercargill, we hear of the colour of gold in buckets of washdirt, and of quartz reefs which look as if they contained gold. If under such circumstances ordinary care and prudence were exercised, there would not be much danger of such reports doing damage. It would in fact be- a good thing if the apathy that lias been so manifest with regard to the material wealth of the colony were superseded by a systematic investigation of its resources. But such is not the order of progression. Private enterprise or accident brings to light some new product or the existence in a particular spot of something like one already known, and at once it is assumed that what pays at one place will be equally profitable at another. This appears to be the phase of sociology through which New Zealand is passing. A more dangerous fever can scarcely be imagined. Luckily for Otago it is not likely to be so pernicious here as in provinces with less experience. Otago has had its quartz malady. In it there are reefs of known and ascertained richness, and we are not short of the mark in saying there are miles of them unworked. The yield of many of them has been proved fully equal to some in Auckland. Nothing has been found in Canterbury to equal them, and the news we have from Stewart’s Island, gives no reason to think that anything' more tempting has been found there. The danger seems to be that some per-

sons may be led to venture spare capital that might be more certainly and profitably employed in the Province, in one or other of the bubble companies now rapidly springing up in valions directions. Of these it may be safely predicted many will never be brought into operation. The Colony cannot find the capital necessary for prosecuting them. Quartz mining differs very materially from alluvial digging, inasmuch as a very large preliminary outlay is requisite. Those who have had any Victorian experience know well the time, talent, and capital required in the construction of works, preparatory to the successful working of a quartz claim. All the engineering appliances in the Colony would not afford the means of supplying steam engines and stamps within a reasonable time for the number of companies projected ; and if these were provided, tliei - e would still have to be added men with the necessary experience and reliability to conduct the works. Assuming, then, that bitten by the prevailing mania, there should be those who feel disposed to risk something in bona fide investments, they must be prepared, under the most favorable circumstances, to wait for many months before they can receive a return for their money ; and it would be worth while to sit down calmly and calculate whether it would not be much better to take steps for prosecuting similar undertakings in this Province, where they can have immediate and effective control over the operations of a company than entrust their capital with those at a distance. If, on the other hand, they feel disposed to take shares with the idea of making something out of them as 4 a speculation, the chance of their doing so is doubly hazardous. In a game of that description, the winners are few compared with the number of players, and their gains are derived from the skill with which they can dupe investors. The writer of this article had a peep behind the scenes in the Joint Stock Bank and railway speculations in England, and in the Quartz Mining fever in Victoria. From the circumstances in which he was placed, he was enabled to trace the rise and progress of those manias, was acquainted with the leading men in them, and had opportunity of observing the manoeuvres by which they contrived to fan the flame. The same means of getting up companies, and leading honest and trusting men into thoughtless and unwarranted speculation were practiced in every instance. There are men who make it their business to contrive and get up a company. They usually have sufficient conscientiousness to have a shadow of ground for what they do ] but very slender probability of an undertaking proving remunerative is enough to satisfy them. Nothing is easier, when a plausible pretext is provided, than to find people to allow their names to be put down as directors. It is not even required that they who thus lend their reputations should advance one farthing. Very often they have shares alloted to them for the privilege of using their names. Then follows the professional list, with the flourishing appendages in the prospectuses of Esqrs., C.E., etc., itc., and , the affair is launched. So long as no heavy calls are made, the scrip of the various companies flies from hand to hand, its market value fluctuating with every breath of rumor. But when some few companies begin work in earnest, and advances are required, stern reality takes the place of speculation, and surely and rapidly the excitement subsides. A few, a very few, have the the tact to retire in time from the game, and keep their winnings. A large per-centage of the money advanced goes into the hands of sharebrokers, attorneys, secretaries, managers, and others, in the shape of preliminary expenses; and the thousands who have been induced by the glittering reports to take shares, find too late that their honesty and good faith have been abused, and that they have been left to bear the loss, Verb am sat sap lent i.