MARKET "RIGGING."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 33, 2 August 1911, Page 5

MARKET "RIGGING."

MINING EXPERTS VIEWS. CRUEL SPORT BY "BULLS" AND "BEARS." Auckland, July 31. Mr. Leslie W. A. Macarthur, F.G.8.,' who has had a lengthy experience in mining matters, and who visits New Zealand to report to English and other oversea capitalists interesting themselves in the development of mining properties in New Zealand, in the course of ail interview on company promotion said:— "My experience is that the share market haa more than tended to kill the goose • that desired to lay tbe golden eggs in Australia, and possibly, though I cannot yet speak with certainty, in New Zealand." He admitted that, without the medium of the Stock Exchange, neither the investor, the prospector, nor the übiquitous promoter could deal with mining properties, "My personal experience," he proceeded, "has a considerable element of the negative as far as public companies axe concerned. For instance, a favorable report can be made not only of mineral resources but of prospective indications. I have found that the bulls and beaur of the Exchange make cruel public apart with genuine investors, practically malting a gaim'ble in the rise and fall at shares, whilst not caring a how-do-you-do as to the legitimate development «f' the property they operate upon?' Mr. Macarthur was ready with a remedy for this state of things. "Recently," he said, "I drafted a Bill for tho Victorian Legislature with a; view to Instituting a mining renwr bureau. Hie objects of which would ta not only to protect the Investing public, but. also directly tend to restore tflie confidence of oversea capitalists supporting the development of the mineral resources of the country." The modus operandi of such a bureau, he explained, was simple in the extreme. A prospector or lessee would report to the Government the details of his mining property, indicating that he desired to place the same upon the sharemrarket for company or syndicate financial support upon sufficiently substantia] proof being submitted that prime facie the property was bona fide. , A Government inspector would endorse the representations made, and then the prospectus would be "ear-marked" bv the Government as giving genuine information as to the property. His experience was that certainly seven out of ten prospectuses sent oversea for capital were overdrawn, some "gilded'' beyond' recognition of the property, and some grossly if not intentionally deceptive.