THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2154, 29 November 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1875.

Foil the present, at all events, the negociations which might have led to the starting of the Bright Smile pumps and the general benefiting thereby of the Waio-Karaka district have fallen through, and Mr J. Murray, who represented the loan Agency in the affair, has been obliged to return the second. time to Auckland without having settled the matter—telling the representatives of the mines at the same time that-having come to meet them twice to no purpose^they •would, if they wanted to see him again, be obliged to come.to him, I*as1*as he did not intend to cut to waste any more time by fruitless visits, to the Thames. In one respect no doubt Mr Murray is quite right to complain; of his lost time. He had laid before the representatives at a former meeting certain definite proposals, and a time had been fixed at which he would meet them again to ascertain whether they would accept these proposals, or suggest any modifications which he, on behalf of the Loan Agency, might be empowered to agree to. On the meeting taking place on Friday night, however, instead of discussing these proposals, or suggesting any alteration in them, Mr Buckland, on the part of the Queen of Beauty, jumped up and proposed that an. association be formed, with a capital of £10,000, &c. Surely* it did not require the presence of Mr Murray to form such an association as was proposed, and our wonder is that the Chairman did not, in his capacity as Chairman, keep the meeting to the discussion of matters which might tend to some.settlement of the difficulty, rather than allow them to make proposals of forming an association,.which, if formed at all, ought jtiy have been formed some time before. We mean this: it was, no doubt, on many grouuds—such, for instauce, as having a

responsible body to deal with—desirable I that an • association should be formed, which, as a body having a loctis standi, might treat with the creditors in possession, but, the formation of that association was certainly not a matter for the then meeting to discuss. It ought to , hare been, and we supposed would have bean formed some time before, in the interval between Mr Murray's first proposals to the representatives and the time, appointed for him to meet them again, and thus have been in a position to debate with him upon the points at issue, and make, if they did not accept his proposals, definite offers to him which he might accept or reject. For' instance they mipht have stated—and we suppose, considering the ultimate offer of £6000, would have stated—that they considered the maximum and minimum amounts of £10,000 and £6000 fixed by Mr Murray as the boundaries between which he would submit the matter to arbitration, too high, and have proposed some such figures as a minimum of say £5000, and a maximum of £8000 as the fairer limits, and then, of course, Mr Murray would have, had something definite' to go on. Mind, we are not saying that they would have been right in making this proposal, or that it is a proposal in any way fairer than Mr Murray's ; we are naturally unable, even if we were willing, to say what is right and fair in the matter; butafc any rate it would .have let Mr Murray know what the views of the association were, and he might then have been prepared to say whether he would meet them, or not. As Mr Murray fixed the lowest price sat £6000, and the highest at £10,000, it is natural to that he considered about £8000 aa equita,ble price. This opinion seems to have been held by Mr BoWe and his two associates who had lately visited the mine; and as Mr Murray offered to take £7000, it is quite probable that he would have reduced, .especially the maximum, - even if not the minimum price of his arbitration terms considerably. We say especially the maximum,, ; for as the. offer of £6000 was actually made, and an offer of £7000 agreed to be taken if made,-, the Association might, considering all things, have been induced- to submit the affair to arbitration provided they had been certain ■that they would not have been let in for a couple of thousand or so by judges whowere, disposed to be rather, exalted in their ideas of the value of the plant. As there was bo Association formed,, how-, ever, no such proposal could be made. All that was done was to offer .to buy the concern straight off for the £6000 which Mr Murray had considered the lowest possible value. After having, said that £7000 was the : the lowest he could take,' Mr Murraywould not agree to this,: and so nothing practically has been done, though much was hoped for, and much talked about. It now only remains to form an association, and that too as quickly as possible. The Loan Agency have distinctly stated that they will not treat with individual companies, but have their money in one lump sum, and the mines interested must take means to raise this sum amongst themselves. If these meanß are made to be immediate, the better for the mines themselves, the better for the Loan Agency, and the better for the whole Thames district. One thing more. It must be borne in mind that in estimating the worth of the plant, calculation must be made of what it would cost to supersede the present should the association determine to have a jilant of its own. The present plant is there, and ready, or might be made, reafty shortly, for immediate use; how long and how much it would cost to supply its place are of course, matters for the association to decide upon; but in estimating the cost the time before the fresh plant could be rendered available must not be lost sight of. If time be money, as some affirm, it is well to consider it in this place, and to consider moreover how unsatisfactory it is to spend both time and money in forming other pumping gear if the present gear is sufficient for the .purpose.