South Canterbury Times. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1893.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7062, 7 February 1893, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1893.

It has passed into a proverb that gold mining is a lottery. An examination of a batch of statutory statements, published in the Gazette , of five-and-twenty gold mining companies in active operation, proves the soundness of the saw. Sixteen of them report a total capital paid up in cash, £156,528, and with liabilities over cash in hand and debts due, of £11,413, have paid no dividends. Three have paid £3600 in dividends on a paid up capital £BOBS, with a present excess of £990 on the liabilities account. The other six, with £56,076 paid up cash capital, and an excess of debts about £4OOO, have paid in dividends £226,830. The paid up capital of the whole batch is £220,688, and the excess of liabilities added makes £234,975, while the total ot dividends paid was (£230,430. It is very like the totalisator. All investors put in £235,000, and some investors got out £230,000. 'The odd £SOOO may be credited to machinery. Two examples of luck, good and ill, are supplied. The Keep-it-Dark Quartz Company has paid £105,106 in dividends on a paidup capital of £2977. That is good luck. The Waihi Company exemplifies the bad—paid up in cash £96,667 ; cash in hand or bank, nil; debts due to the company, nil; contingent liabilities of the company, £7500 ; dividends nil.

Looking forward, Prince Biaraarck sees that the Governments of Europe have growing up under their feet a question far more important for them than any territorial question. The growth of Socialism threatens the existing arrangements for securing internal order snd external security, far more than the desire for more elbow-room, for aggrandisement, or for revenge, by any yingle Power, or any combination He seems to say that |Hj|||||e of safety for the Governments ■HHftmllel to, and not across, that of a H|HH|»ioTement which appears cerbecome more and more governing machinery such a movement by by resistance and ■BHH|RBKIt is not a little relike Bismarck of this kind .shows how great new school of f^^B^^HHHHHHHbrmany. DAY, wplliamo’ judgHnQHT H case will be «H was thrown Mpiel'.. Waimate* HHlsd the misHe went to HH reduced by BhIK be played HBnmd should jjHHHie town will mgjjgmg :—Ferry, TboaipHUHni HHKpn, Fraser, jHo|l says that tUßEpiy of pota--BB> In consemarket Hitatoes planted 3ld much of the Jm rains. :—News was of the death at James Hamilas one of man who was works and kindly was universally the news of his with genuine regret the early Otago days years, had the of the Press Maud Weld, daughter of Sir HHmck Aloysius Weld, G C.M.9., one of founders of the colony of Now Zealand, and who served as Governor of Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Straits Settlements, is to marry Mr Philip Eadcliffe, son of the Lady Eadcliffe who was a conspicuous witness at the famous Tiohborne trial- Miss Weld is well-known in colonial circles on this side. It is understood that Cardinal Vaughan, an intimate friend of the family of both bridegroom and bride, will officiate at the marriage, this being the first nuptial ceremony since his appointment us Archbishop of Westminster. A Wellington exchange says : —Mr D. McKinnon, of the Waikato, intends at the next civil sittings of the Supreme Court, to test the validity of the Wellington Boeing Club’s act in accepting certain nominations for their recent meeting, which, though posted in good time, went astray, and reached (be secretary, Mr 9« M. Lyon, after the advertised date. Mr McKinnoh’s horse, Loch Ness, ran second in the Telegraph Handicap, and he now claims first money (£BS) on the ground that Eebellion, who won, was not entered within the prescribed time. Should his contention, which is made in a friendly spirit, be upheld by the Court, other races at the same meeting will be affected, involving the sum of £2OO.

The following extract from a recent Glasgow paper would serve to indicate a possible now market for New Zealand frozen meat:— The Japanese Government, which in its paternal regard for its subjects follows the German model, has come to the conclusion that a diet chiefly of rice is not advantageous. Sir Francis de Winton, addressing the Manchester Geographical Society—of which, by the way, the Duke of York has just become president, in succession to the Duke of Devonshire—’Stated that instead of the vegetarian food to which the Japanese had hitherto largely accustomed themselves, it

had been decided by the Government to encourage meat diet; It is thought that this will increase the stature and improve the physique of the race. Sir Francis points out that in this fact there are good prospects for the cattle ranchers of the West of Canada and British Columbia. But the vegetarians will doubtless grumble at the defection of Japan from a vegetable diet.

A writer in the London Times thus discourses on the frozen mutton trade : " Twelve years ago this trade was practically nonexistent. In 1882, two years after Australia hod sent 400 carcases to London, New Zea* land forwarded 8839. In the following year, 1883, she consigned 120,892, and so went on advancing by leaps and bounds until last year she reached the great total of 1,896,706 carcases, far outstripping the Australian colonies which first took up the business, their total for last year being only 334,693. The increase in the money value was from £19,339 in 1882 to in 1891. New South Wales and Queensland, however, are likely to become much more formidable rivals of New Zealand in the immediate future. The frozen meat trade is described as having already been the ' salvation of New Zealand.’ It is worth while pointing out that at least 20 per cent, of our total meat supply reaches us in a frozen condition. Comparatively little New Zealand mutton, so described, is seen on scale in the shops. But it is said that the prime carcases are largely sold as ‘ English ’ op ‘Scotch,’ while it is chiefly the inferior carcases or joints from Australia or from the River Plate which are sold as ‘ New Zealand mutton.’ Two things may be thus explained—first why the trade in foreign or colonial meat does not appear to the retail purchasers to be so large as to represent one carcase out of every five offered for sale; and, in the second place, why there should still be so muoh prejudice against New Zealand mutton.” UNIVERS \L PRAISE. Unimpeachable skin authorities, wellknown public men and actresses, to whom apoearance is capital, have at one time and another come forward unsolicited to sing the praises of Peabs’ Soap.