The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29 1883. THE TERAWHITI GOLD FIELD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1469, 29 August 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29 1883. THE TERAWHITI GOLD FIELD.

Any enterprise'whicli benefits the City of Wellington must indirectly help an outlying district like the Wairarapa, and wo have therefore some reason for taking a lively interest in the progress of the Terawhiti Gold Companies. But apart from this consideration there is another ground on which we may regard Terawhiti with some degree of solicitude. We have quartz reefs in the Wairarapa and their developeraeiit is likely to follow on the success of the Wellington goldfield. The position these companies occupy at the present time is somewhat anomalous.. Payable gold has been obtained from the Golden Crown reef, and yet instead of advancing, the shares of this and other companies in its neighborhood are receding. In Juno lust the Golden Crown shares stood at 4s, in July they advanced to 20s, and in August they have fallen below 10s, The explanation of thiß extraordinary fluctuation is apparently a simple one. The ;Einpire City has subscribed to over a quarter of a million of. money in nominal capital, spread over soino thirty claims—a sum altogether beyoud its resources. We question whether the Empire City can find the periodical payments tor calls on such a large capital.. : If so, the Terawhiti market is pimply flooded with shares, and without outside assistance all the companies must suffer and somo of them collapse. A'tenth of the nominal capital already subscribed, if concentrated on one of the best parts of the field, would probably produce a greater quantity of gold, than all'the companies combined are likely to obtain during the next two or three yearsWellington has gone in for working some four or five' hundred acres of land when it is only strong enough to do justice to about forty or' fifty! It is evident that an -'enormous and reckless waste of money is going onat Terawhiti, and it is quite time that some check was put to it, TheCitybf Wellington is full of mining rings, which h&ve a direct interest in keeping money moving, and. apparently no one is bold enough to attack them and point out where money is being misspent and wasted. The Wellington press apparently publishes but second hand reports of the Terawhiti reefs. If one or other of the city papers sent a competent mining reporter to give a thorough and exhaustive report of the variouß claims, we believe that many of the mining bubbles which must exist there would speedily burst, and the more genuine claims would receive a greater amount of support from investors. We are convinced that Terawhiti is certain in time to prove a payable goldfield, but the speculative

claims, the bogus reel's, and fictitious shares are at the present time a serious drawback to it. Wellington may be able to spare £25,000 for gold-minir.g —it may even find £50,000 for such an enterprise—but it is simply madness to assume that it can put down in hard cash £250,000-; and yet this is the Empire City programme. Tho outcome of it is the mining share list, where,piices range from a modest halfpenny up to ten shillings, Business men in Wellington should combine to put aii -end to a sham of this description.. . Terawhiti is a good asset and prospects loitght not to be jeopardised by sucK.'palpable mismanagement.