“THE CINDERELLA OF METALS.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2046, 5 April 1907, Page 1

“THE CINDERELLA OF METALS.”

THE STORY OF COPPER. NO. 7. . Coming now to the profits realised from copper, an excellent illustration of tlio profits of the industry was afforded by the examination of Senator W. A. Clark in tlio suit of Geo. A. Treadwell against tlio United Verde Copper Company. Ho testified that the dividends from tlio United Verde was 120 per cent, per year on a capital of £OOO,OOO. The mine has paid, up to the present time, .£0,157,065 in dividends, the total production being about double that figure. This has been produced from a depth of only 700 foot, and drill cores below that level to the depth of 700 feet further show that the copper value continues that depth at least. It is estimated that about one-tliird of the ore has been stoped out above the 700 feet level. This will make the total value ot the ore bodies exposed x, 12.000,000, including that already mined. 11l addition to this, the ore shown by the drill cores amounts to as much' more. The mine has only been exploited over about one-third of its area, and it is therefore reasonable to estimate the value of the property above the 700 feet level at £21,000,000. with as much more below. The Lake Superior mines give direct employment to over 18,000 men, and indirect employment to thousands more dependent on the activity of tlio mines. There aro over 25;000 shareholders in above companies alone at the present time. In 1890 there were only 6598. These comparative figures show the. enormously growing interest in copper investments. Tlio Lake Superior Mines have been worked continuously for over forty years, and their stock is worth enormously more to-day than it was twenty years ago. The mines of Chili and Cornwall have been worked continuously for from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years, and show no signs of exhaustion. The Rio Tinto copper mines at Nerva, Huelva, Spain, have been worked by modern methods for over three hundred years, and wore operated by the Carthaginians, Romans, and Moors long before. The Spanish Government worked these mines till they passed into the possession of the Rio Tinto Company, Ltd., of London, England (Rothschild denomination). The Vosliioka mine, in the Province of Bicliu, Japan, was opened in the ninth century, and, notwithstanding the fact that it has been worked continuously for over a thousand years, lias still ore bodies of large extent to be mined. No copper mine with true geological formation and large strong contract veins has over become exhausted so far in the world’s record of copper history. A large proportion of copper mines either have gold and silver in their ore in conjunction with the copper, or find it as development work progresses. The famous Anaconda, of Butts, Silver Bow County Montana, in addition to being the largest copper producer in the world is also the greatest producer of silver, and its production of gold is equal to that of many of the world’s largest gold mines. In such instances (and they are of frequent occurrence) the gold and silver mined defrays the cost, and the copper becomes clear profit. The United Verde Copper Company of Jerome, Arizona, owing to a fortuitous combination of this character, is enabled to make its copper at a cost of about l)d per pound, which gives it a position impregnable to competition. The Wolverine, at ICearsage ,Houghton Co., Michigan, produced its copper at less than 3id per pound, which is about the lowest ratio of cost in the Lake District, Calumet qntl Ilqplji iiqssiblv excepted. It mines copper alone. Tho Qulnoy of Hancock, Mich,, .holds the record however, for producing copper at lowest cost in Lake Superior District ,the equal figures being 2-Jd. The remarkably small proportion of actual ntnor required per ton of ore to nnHßjj|L profitable copper mine may be feigjfrom the following statistical figures of cost in four of the leading copper mines on the basis of their operation. Name of Company: Atlantic, tons stamped .380,781, cost per tqn £342, profit per ton Is 3d, dividends, £16,000; Osceola, 546,326, £460, 4s Id, £117,708; Quincy, 559,164, £561, 6s lid, £190,000; Tamarack, 0ei,090, £7OO, 4s 10id, £120,000. -The copper producing industry not only gets more than would properly seem its share when business booms are on but also stands adversity better than anything else. It is a matter of history that in the last great period of business depression tho iron miners in one portion of Miclii* gan, reduced to tho verge of starvation, sent delegates into tho copper country to solicit relief. The delegates returned with hundreds of pounds that they had .collected, and with the report that labor was found to be fully employed in the copper mines and at good wages. Tho copper business was active when the iron and steel business was dead. During the las] score of years the copper mines of tlio United States and Mexico have, paid in actual dividends £60,000,000 since January Ist of tliis year, ten copper companies alone have distributed in earnings nearly £3,800,000. . Tlio fact jg (hat copper mines are paying one-lialf of the total dividends paid by the entire mining industry. The mining of copper is making more millionaires than any other industry ip the work}, qnfl is making them quicker. One mine in Arizona is paying annually £2.000,000 in profits and lias made millionaires of its stock holders. Several copper mines in Arizona and Mexico arc paying from 10Q per cent, tq 3300 per cent, on an investment made only a few years ago. The man who invested £2OO in the Calumet and Arizona of Arizona four years ago now has a snug fortune worth £6600, and is receiving in annual dividends the sum of £960. -.o metal of all metals is in such demand in the whole world as is copper. The enormous increase in the consumption and the rise in price of this metal have been coincident with the vast extension of the uses of electricity throughout the United States and Europe. The consumption of brass is growing rapidly, and brass is two-thirds copper. The growing consumption of this metal can bring about one result, and that is the continual rise of tiltprice of copper, and the rapidly growing profits of those who own Stocks in copper mines. A copper mine is a plain commercial proposition, not a speculation. The richest copper section in the world is the Sonora Copper Belt, It extends through Arizona and across the Mexican border, southward through the State of Sonora, Mexico. On it arc some of the most productive and profitable mines that the world has ever known. "Among those are the United- Verde, owned __ by Senator William A. Clark of Montana, which pays £1,200,000 a month; the Copper Queen which earns £2,000,000 a year; the Calumet and Arizona paying dividends of £480,000 a year ; the Greene Consolidated which earns, and distributes to stockholders a

like amount. The Shannon, the Old Dominion, and others. These are a few of the mines of the Sonora Copper Belt which aro heaping up for. tunes for tlioso who bought their stocks when those mines were beginning operations. At the end of 1966 the Directors of the American Company, the Calumet and Heela Mining Company declined a quarterly dividend of £4. AVith the November dividend this gigantic copper mine lias paid its stock holders dividends aggregating £19,8/0,000. The actual capital invested in this property up to the time it bocivmo selfsupporting was £240,000. This corporation was capitalized under the laws of Michigan in tho year 1871, capitalization being £500,000 the pai value of the shares being £5. £2 10s per share only was paid in by subscribers when tlio mine ontered upon its career as a fabulous wealth producer. The lowest market price of Calumet and Heel a stock during 1903 was £BO per share, and its highest price in the same year was £llO. On November 19th, 1906, Calumet and Heela sold on the Boston market at £175 per share.

JAPAN’S WORLD POLICY

FIELDS FOR FOREIGN COMMERCE. Amongst the passengers who landed on New Zealand soil from the Sail Francisco steamer Sonoma on Thursday morning was Mr N. Nakamura, a Japanese journalist, who represents a syndicate of Tokio papers, and who has been making a tom of tlio world, which has already occupied five years of liis time. He started out in August of 1901, and travelled through Corea, through tlie South of China, Siam, Java, Malay, Sumatra, Burma, India, Behichistan, Persia, Caucasia, Greece, Italy, England, France, Scotland, "Egypt, Algiers, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, East Africa, up to the Red Sea, back to France, then to Switzerland. Germany. Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Servia,. Roumania, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Belgium, then back to London, and across to New York, visiting Canada and the chief places in tlio United States of America, and thence through practically every district of South America, travelling from Gautemala to San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, the Argentine, ’ Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, and tlie West Indies, and from there to San Francisco, and so down to Auckland. On tho journey back to Japan ho still lias the rest of Now Zealand, Australia, and the Philippine Islands to see, and it is interesting to note, as showing the universal character of tho English language, that Mr. Nakamura has found that a knowledge of English was all that was required in almost any part of tho world to find someone, who could understand him.

A CREDENTIAL. Mr. Nakamura carries with him a book, which to a collector would ho a pearl almost beyond price, for it contains official autographs and stamps and seals of every place jif has visited, and references to his visit are chronicled there in hundreds of different handwritings, and in all sorts of languages. Side by sido with the autograph of, say, a Consul in Siam, is the flourish and seal of a Persian high official, or a paragraph in English may be followed by a sentence in Greek. On tho front pages of the book is the following interesting letter:—“Mr. N. Nakamura is going to make journey round the world. His intention is, I believe, to collect practical knowledge of geography and philology. I have no doubt he would be received with respect everywhere ho goes, foy he is such a gentleman as tp interest anyone whom he meets with by his own line of knowledge.—S. Isawa, member of the House of Peers, Tokio, Japan,” Mr, Nakamura himself lias a most interesting personality; lie is a fine specimen of his race, representative of the younger and newer Japan, brimful of enthusiasm, and a keen student of men and manners. On his journeying lie lias earned liis own expenses by medium of the articles he writes and hi various other ways, and says lie would bo quite ready to start out on another five years’ tour to-morrow.

AN INTERESTING CHAT. A Herald representative hftjJ fig interesting chat with Mr Nakamura on his observations during his travels. Asked what he considered tho most interesting section of his journey, he said he considered tlie journey from the start tp the present date was full of the. utmost interest, but probably South America, North Africa, and India were of the greatest interest. The hardest journey ol all was through the country drained by the Amazon river, and thpre arid in Porsia, Peru, and Mexico, he met with most dangerous experiences. Tho object of bis tour mainly was to study the commerce and industries of the different countries, and, eventually, he would write books in this connection, the object being to educate the Japanese people in the trades and customs of other parts of the world. SETTLEMENT OF SURPLUS POPULATION.

He considered that South America offered the biggest field, commercially, for Japan iu the future, and not only for commerce, but for settlement of some of the surplus population of Ills country. At present in South America living was very expensive, and the rate for labor was very low. so that it would never pay Japanese laborers to go to South America, but th;\t pp.untvy had tremendous tracts in a state of virgin wilderness, and there Japanese with some capital might take up land and settle the country with every advantage. The Japanese people tjsai’P peaceable ape] industrious, anpl colonies of them would find splendid openings in a country like South America, where they would (levplpp the resources, apcl bring the land to rich and profitable fruition, and there was no reason why they should not go there, for the Japanese were becoming an educated, and, therefore, highly civilised people, and they, felt that they were qq longer u race apart, but were now capable of taking their place os citizens of tlie world. Japan had no country of her own to offer to her surplus population, she had no wish to hold further territory, and did not see why her people should not mingle with tlie world at large. EXPANSION OF TRADE. The Japanese nation, said Mr. Nakamura, was now developing an enormous trade. It was obtaining a commercial relationship with almost every country in tho world, and Japan was naturally looking for the best markets, and the most profitable lines of commerce, and she was satisfied that if other nations regard; ed her rightly trade relationships with Japan would be highly valued, and there would be the greatest freedom of intercourse between the other nations and Japan. He was engaged

ill studying what was required in other countries that Japan could produce, so that’ she might stock these lines in her shop. A good many Australian people were now settling in Japan, and Japan had a pretty fair trade with Australia. People from other countries were also settling in 'Japan, and in just the same way (lie Japanese people desired to settle in other countries. He did not know why, but between Japan and Now, Zealand there was no system of parcels post, and everything had to be sent by freight, which was very expensive. In very many linos of commorce now Japan was taking her stand amongst tho nations of the world, and with fair trading conditions established, and with similar respect accorded her by other nations that other nations accorded each other Japan would never be a disturbing factor in tho world’s peace.

JAPAN’S WORLD POLICY. Mr Nakamura was particularly requested to speak on Japan’s policy with regard to other nations in the broad, general sense of a world policy. He replied that if other nations studied and understood Japan as Japan was trying to study and understand Western nations their ideas and customs, there would never bo any talk of the Japanese peril, of a secret policy of territorial aggression, and so oil. The world, after all, was only one great country, inhabited by different races of people, but commercially it was one country, and the Japanese idea was that tho everlasting suspicion with which one nation was regarded by another was a very narrow-minded policy. Japan believed in a wide and generous world policy, regarding all nations as ■so many great families, and she did not see why all could not live at pence together, and why the utmost friendliness and concord should not exist. People from other nations acre coming into Japan every day, hut Japan di diiot regard them with hostility and suspicion; instead, she thought the more the better, because the more settlement of other people there was tho more it tended to that state of one commercial world that Japan believed should exist. There was room enough for all, and the world at large would stand much development yet, and just as the people of one country combined, by reason of their various industries and natural co-operation of industry, to develop its resources to the fullest possible extent, why should not all nations of the world combine with their various industries to develop the world at large, working in 'common unison for a state of the greatest peace and happiness. Japan considered that the “closed door” was a most narrow-minded policy, and it was really due to want of knowledge. Japan did not desire tq have any closed door in her own country, am] it would be with tho greatest regret that slio would so act in retaliation, for retaliation was the only thing that would ever induce Japan to close the door. Japan had studied the policy of England, and found it tlio wisest and best, and she intended to follow that policy An Englishman did not care very much where on the surface of the earth he lived, provided he was coins fortable and happy, and Englishmen were to he found settled in every land under the sun ; they were citizens of the world, and so tlie Jap.apr ese desired to become citizens; of the world, and to view- the whole question of life from the point of view of a world policy, tlie widest and broadest policy in every sense of the word. The “closed door” and unreasonable restriction on immigration were old and out of date ideas ip these modern times. Possibly until the world adjusted itself a hit better, certain reasonable restrictions against foreign immigration were required, so that one country in particular might not have too sudden an influx and too great a disparity of races, but generally speaking, the Japanese people, when better known and better understood, would be valued as citizens by any country, and they would gladly assist in a whole general policy of progress and enlightenment. Some countries viewed with afyrio tho rate at which JqjV'h was building warships, but the alarm was not only groundless, but foolish. Japan, in pursuance of her policy of trade expansion and 'commercial relationship with the lest of the world, had now a large commercial fleet, and would in time to coup, have a very much greater one, and was it not reasonable to think that she required an adequate navy to protect her large and growing commerce? England had a great, and wonderful navy, hut in one seriously thought that navy was for the purpose of annexation of the territory owned by other countries, and neither-was Japan’s navy intended for that purpose, .jkipan recognised that the. best security- in the world for peace was a navy strong enough to take care of its country, and Japan was as dear a land to the .Japanese as England to t ! -r English. It was a great mistake ti regard Japan «§ an aggressive country. She had never been the aggressor, and it was y matter of history that both tho Chinese and the Russian wars had been forced upon Japan. Those countries had endeavored to force- her unfairly., ami she would not be forced unfairly. Japan desired above all things to be friendly with all other nations, and as an instance "of how willingly hi? country met other countries ip, a fair and open manner, be mentioned the Japanese trouble in California. Tlie Japanese nation could never be grateful enough for the far-sighted and world policy of the English statesmen who entered into the .Miglo-Jap.aupsn treaty. England understood Japan, and recognised the full value of the world policy of Japan, which, after all, was simply a counterpart of the English policy of fair j;!r,y, The Japanese loved tht'i sense of fair play i if was the sense of fair play which induced tho big nation of England to stapd beside Japan in its great task of the war with Russia, in English expression, “to see the little chap get a fair chance,” „and just so Japan intended to “play the game” in her relations with other Rowers, and she would always he found slow to anger, hut never consenting to be “syt upon.” There was great talk of a union between Ilia Japanese and Chinese, but the races were separate entities, they did. pot mix, and, in his opinion, unless it was in self-defence against a combination of other Powers China and Japan would never fie found in alliance. Moreover, Japan was rapidly adopting the Christian religion; it was becoming a Christian country, highly educated and civilised, and it hoped to see its people becoming citizens of the world, and the world looking upon them ass valued citizens, valued because of industry, enthusiasm, and bright and progressive, and new thought.—N.Z. Herald.