THE BIG PUMP.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3477, 16 February 1880, Page 2

THE BIG PUMP.

The matters of the Big Pump and its surroundings bare become somewhat mixed during the past few days. It would appear that the Auckland mining men pre playing a game of bluff all round, both with respect to the Famp and the Caledonian; The Pump was purchased by Mr Comer for a comparatively trifling sum as a "spec," he, doubtless, thinking that it would be immediately taken off his hands by some of the companies interested. The water was permitted to rise in the shaft, but nothing would arouse those most interested irom their inertness, we will call it. Mr Comer, to secure himself then bad to start pumping so that he can get. out the submerged lifts, and he has expressed his intention of selling them. The old iron of the pump would give him a handsome profit on bis speculation, and several of the sections of the main column are now lying, oh the surface, an evidence of the bona fide nature of his expressed intention. It is rumored, and we only give the statement for what it is worth, that an effort will be made to prevent the disposal of the lifts, it being asserted that the column was the property of the Caledonian and Tookey Companies. While the pump now is in this unsatisfactory condition, the Caledonian according to report is much worse. It was purchased by Mr Rowe, that gentleman intending to form a company, cad not doubling in the least but that the capital would be subscribed. But our betes noires, the Auckland Rentlemen, refuse to have anything to do with the rndeifcaLing, thereby thinking to damn it. This piece of "masterly inactivity " caused Mr Eowe to considerably modify his original prospectus, and this morning it was rumoured thai the floating of the company was abandoned. It would apper.r, however, that there is no truth in tbis, though Mr Eowe has been obliged to apply for an extension of time from the County Council to complete bis purchase. The illness of that'gentleman has doubtless bad something to do with the delay in the floating of the new venUre. WewjM look with interest for,the appearance of events tbafc will solve this tangled skein of d'fficulies, and we cannot help thinlnng that a grave mistake was macie by the County Council in dispos'ng of the pump. Whatever was done with the other securities, while they owned the pump, they held the trump card; they hare disposed of it at a great sacrifice, and the interests of the district at large seem likely to suffer severely from their action.