CURRENT TOPICS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 January 1903, Page 2

CURRENT TOPICS.

The statement of the affairs of tho Nelson Creek Gold Dredging Company to the 31st December last, as declared by manager, is a very pleasing document. The Company, which was floated by Mr W. R. Cook, was registered on July Ist, 1899, and commenced actual w rkcn December 15th, 1900, so that at ths end of last year it had been two years working. During that period the dredge under tho careful guidance of Dredgemaster Edmunds has obtained £23,858 2s 6d, or nearly £IOOO per month. Out of this

sum the company has paid £12,325 in dividends, and hns cash in hand and on fixed deposit 1,994 8s 6d. As against this, there were liabilities of £6BO 19s 2d, so that the net credit balance was £1,313 9s 4d. This amount added to the dividend gives the profit for the two years £13,638 9s 4d, The capital of the company is £8,500, of which only £6OOO in cash was subscribed, the balance being vendors' paid-up shares. And this great claim, which has already paid about 30s for every £ invested, has to all appearances many years of equally rich, if not richer, ground before it. Lucky shareholders.

" Fbobi Wellington to London and back in throe hours!" What would our grandfathers have thought had anyone suggested the possibility of such rapid communication '? Fit for a lunatic asylum they would immediately reply. Yet such has been the advance of saience and discovery that we think but little of it beyond merely recording the fact that a rival cable company, whose line has just been completed, finds it can accomplish the task with ease. A Press Association wire tells us that a test was recently made of the speed of the ; Pacific cable by the PostmasterGeneral with most satisfactory results. A telegram sent from Wellington to Reeves at London only took 27 minutes and the reply two hours 23 minutes, In view of the fact that the original might have been " expressed" through, another message was sent closely coded, through Reuters to their London office. It occupied 2 hours 1 min, and the reply one hour nine minutes. The message was sent at the time of the day when the wires in New Zealand and America were fairly busy. Truly the most distant parts of the earth are coming marvellously close together.