SCRIP SPECULATION AND ITS RESULTS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 964, 23 April 1872, Page 2

SCRIP SPECULATION AND ITS RESULTS.

A true story of scrip speculation, showing the. uncertainties in connection therewith, is worth relating in our columns this week. Twelve years ago two gentlemen, who were then connected with two of the banks in the town of Maryborough in Victoria, agreed to purchase betwixt them a hundred shares in a company then known as the Sandy Creek Poverty Reef Company. The transaction was only a few weeks concluded, when, from £2 per share, the purchased price, they ran up in the market to £3 10s. Being satisfied, from their knowledge of the quantities of gold obtained from adjoining claims, that when the reef would be struck the shares would be quoted at a high pretniu.n, they were induced to venture on another joint speculation of forty more shares. A few months after, finding that the tunnels and the drives put in, had shown no indications of the reef, the scrip went " a-begging" in the market. Down went the price in another twelve months to as few shillings as were formerly quoted in pounds. One of the two left for JSTew Zealand, leaving behind him the scrip with a blank transfer, for his friend to fill in whenever they realised an amount worth realising upon. The matter was left in this way to the judgment of the other who remained in Victoria " to do the best he oouid" for the interest of both. Four years ago they happened to meet in Westport, when in the small sanctum behind the Union Bank they inspected their worthless parchment, which was at that time quoted on the Melbourne Exchange at "6d per share, but no buyers." Each offered to end the matter of partnership by accepting five pounds, but neither would become the purchaser at that price. Three more years passed; when the Company became amalgamated and took the name of the United Poverty Eeef Company. The Sandhurst mania gave an impetus to nearly all mining stocks, and the long held shares were once more quoted at 7s Gd. The revived temptation became too strong for fie Westport partner, and he wrote to his friend, then removed to a distant part of the Coast, acquainted him that he meant to sell his half, and requesting that a division of the scrip might be made in order that a transfer might be effected. This was done. The ono sold at 7s Gd, while the other held and still holds his seventy shares. Three months ago the shares again fell, and the seller received a letter from his friend vbo held, lamenting the want of shrewdness

i«^ on his part in not selling also. now comes the sequel to the story. %. Alhambra arrived at Hokitika lggj week, and the following veritable ne»i in respect to the claim and scrip i, just to hand by the Melbourne paparj. —" Great excitement prevails at Tar! nagulla. The reef struck in the United Poverty Beef Company's ground gi Tet prospects of 4 ounGes to the tin dish The reef is 13 inches wide near thj surface." The Tarnagulla correspon. dent of the 'D. and B Express' says, —The prospects of our mining compa. nies are daily improving. A very rich block of stone has been found by the United Poverty Keef Company on ground known as the Havelock Reef, Two dishes of stuft' washed on Friday gave a prospect of fully 2 ounces of gold to each dish, and on Saturday a dish was washed which contained at least 12oz of gold, some of the speci. mens being equal to any I have ever seen on Tarnagullla. This reef ig being worked by four wages men in the employ of the company, and the find, following so closely on the rich crushings of the tribute parties (viz. Scorer, 3220z from 80 loads); and Bartlett and party, 720z 15dwt from 80 loads), has caused the shares in this company to rise rapidly in value but very few of our local shareholders will sell, as the prospects of the mine were never so good as they are at present. A trial lot will be crushed from the new reef in the course of the present week." The latest account states, " the directors of the United Poverty Reef Co. handed over to fij Scorer (No 3 Tribute) a cheque fot £IOSO 12s 2d, being the result of two weeks' work for four men." Prom the known nature of the ground in the immediate vicinity, where manj large fortunes have been accumulated, we should not be surprised to see the quotation of £lO per share brought by the next Melbourne steamer, Such are the strokes of fortune anil misfortune to which scrip speculators are sometimes liable. i