The Evening Star. SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4087, 1 April 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1876.

The consequences <f the systematic swindling to which capitalists have .been Subjected by promoters of joint stock bubbles, do not, Unfortunately, visit the guilty. They too often escape yith money in their pockets filched from thoe they have deceived, while enterprises ealedated to do good to the country, and to gve permanent employment families are nipped in the bud, and the workmen because of their deceit, plunged into distress. We have an instance m point in th» Milton Pottery Works. From the statement made yesterday to his Honor the Superintendent, it‘seems plain that there is enough of the raw material of suitable quality, and procurable at so little cost of labor as to justify the expectation the projector entertained of success. That h® fully bettered that he would succeed in establshing a valuable industry is shown by the fact of his having invested his capital in the construction of *h® necessary pant. It appears from the re-, suit that he hac not accurately counted the cost, or perhaps had calculated upon readily receiving the ajeommodation necessary for' carrying on the business when its bond fidei was understooi and the supply of skilled labor requisite was assured. Whatever speculative element there was in the matter, not being in tie secret we are unable to state, but it is erident that the failing point was there. Beautiful specimens of pottery were exhibited in Dunedin, showing of what the works and she workmen were capable; but though they were described and praised in the public journals and public attention was directed- to them, they failed to attract the necessary capital. In the meantime, workmen had been induced to emig£ a f® .from Great Britain on the faith of finding remunerative employment here, and now, became of the failure of the prort they are now out of work. We do not know by what means the engagementswere effected—-whether through i Provincial Government instrumentality, or. through private negotiation. If through the Government, although merely by way of recommendation, they have a clear claim to assistance’; if through private communication, it is the interest of the community to retain so useful a class among us, and to devise some means of employing them at their own trade. It might have been supposed that no real diffiuculty would be experienced; that the value, of the population, if not of the. enterprise, would have commended itself so strongly to the owners of propertyand land in and about Milton, that they, would have at once subscribed a sum of money for investment in it rather than have allowed the manufacture to go down. If for ' seven years there ■ had been no percentage upon the capital employed, so long as there was no loss, the indirect gain to every tradesman, farmer, and squatter in the district would have been great. The true value of population appears yet to be learnt. The tnfling sum of L6OO oi LBOO, it would seem, is all that is needed now. to set the enterprise afloat, What does this mean to : Milton ? It means not merely work secured to the fifty or sixty families immediately engaged in the manufacture, but to families of workmen indirectly employed; to coalminers, carriers, artizans of various callings, and unskilled laborers required for excavating the clay, and in endless other ways. Carried beyond this it means a ready and consequently profitable market for the farming and pastoral produce of the neighborhood; the mouths have come to the market, they are not to seek. If, therefore, not a stiver per cent, was realised a direct return for interest of money invested, the indirect gain would be enormous. JN or does it seem to us that there need be notwithstanding the compa-. ratively high wages between Great Britain and Hew Zealand. Earthenware has peculiarly high protection from the nature of the f-°vi 1 , e * r fragile character renders them iiabletoa large percentage of breakagfein transit between Great Britain and New Zealand, and importers must therefore he paid,-riot-merely for those that Arrive and go into consumption, but for those that are broken, ihere is consequently, apart from import duty, a very heavy protection to crockery in freight and breakage. It seems to us) theretore, apart from drawbacks,' pertaining to material or manufacturing iimdrilfiiinoaq which we are not in a.position to estimate, that pottery is one of those mdustries that, commertoprosper, if properly - worked. If the Executive see their way to grante of, say ten acres of land to each workman, let them not refuse it. Our sapient contemporary, the Guardian, ’ regards a gift of land as of no value; but we nave no doubt Mr Gilues would find a way to turn a gift of ten Acres a-piece into capital enough to carry on the works, it the estimated sum is really sufficient; and we do not know how it could be more profitably utilised. Should this nelp be given, which we trust will readily be accorded, we still think that it would be wise xm the part of the associated workmen to carefully select a competent 'manager; for workmen are not usually trained to the mercantile' or organising departments, and it is in these that failures commonly occur. Hot every man who can write a good hand and / multiplication or addition sum is fitted for the trading part' of a concern, failures m joint stock companies are usually traceable to incompetent management, and it is this that is to be mainly feared.