AMALGAMTION OF COMPANIES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 241, 12 September 1872, Page 8

AMALGAMTION OF COMPANIES.

The following sensible letter appears in the " Auckland Weekly Herald " :

Sib, — It is evident that greater economy must be exercised in the mode of working some of our mines, or the prospect of dividends for shareholders will continue to be very remote. Take, for instance, the ground lying between the Moanatairi and Waiotahi creeks. This ground is now mainly held by four companies, the Waitemata, Nonpareil, Central Italy, and Golden Calf. These companies have four boards of directors, four lerral managers, four mine managers,

four steam engines, and four engineers Each company is under charge more or less heavy for coals, repairs, stationery, advertising, &c, &c. Not one of them possesses a battery. Each company, therefore, transports its quartz at a heavy expense to one or other of the nearest batteries. Each company has sunk its shafts, driven its tunnels, and generally has conducted its operations often independently of its neighbours, sometimes in opposition to them. These isolated efforts involve a very heavy, and, in the main, useless expenditure. As a natural consequence, calls are made, and dividends are not paid. Shortly each of these companies will have called up and expended their capital. "When that has been done, the shareholders must either be prepared to increase their capital or see their property pass into other bands at a nominal value. Before hard necessity compels the adoption of one or other of these courses, would it not be wise for the shareholders to consider whether their interests cannot be consolidated, and their available funds concentrated in a combined, and therefore, economical system of working a most valuable block % It may be difficult, but it ought not to be impossible, to ascertain the relative values of the properly of each of the four companies. If tbat were done, one powerful company might be formed, three-fourths of the present wasteful expenditure saved, and one of the most valuable properties on the Thames goldfields created and worked for the advantage of the present shareholders. As a shareholder in Jeach of the four comprnies, I commend the careful consideration of this proposal to the shareholders in all the companies I have named. — I am, &c.,

J. 0. Fjh^b. Auckland, $872,