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Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2474, 19 May 1888, Page 2

It is a subject for sincere congratulation that, by the prompt action of Mr Northcroft, Warden at the Thames, another bare-faced attempt to perpetrate a gross swindle on the investing public, has been nipped in the bud. Through false representations of mineral richness, which the ground has since been proved not to possess, and by the palming off of assays of valuable ore obtained from another mine, people in Melbourne were led to float a company to work a fictitious mine and the capital amountingto £85,000 was subscribed, and shares were allotted. The Warden, hearing of the suspicious circumstances connected with the transaction, very properly refused to grant the application for a license or afford protection. By hie direction and personal supervision stone was taken from the alleged mine, and on being assayed by Mr l'oud was found to contain nothing. Thus the swindle has been exposed. With the odour of the Waitoa fraud still fresh in our nostrils, it is not pleasaut to meet with such another impudent attempt to a similar nature. It is high time severe punishment was meted out to the unscrupulous rascals who, by such misdeeds, arc jeopardising the progress of our goldfields, and creating distrust here and abroad in the lionn■ fiik-n of our mineral resources. Steps should be taken by the Government to discover the rulprits concerned in the Broken Hills Marototo salting swindle, and bring them to justice.