ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 214, 9 September 1891, Page 4

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(VIA BRINPISI.)

(FROM OCR SPECIAL CORBESPONDENT.)

London, July 23. CITY GOSSIP. The various New Zealandere who have come home during the past year with a view to getting English capital for colonial mines and the like, have mostly found to their chagrin and dismay that John Bull's pocket is scarcely so accessible as of yore. Wen do not, as a rule, flaunt their failures in one's face, and yet I have met At leaab half-a-dozen New Zealanders during the past month who have confessed themselves utterly unable to interest "good" people in the grand mines, etc.y ■n-hidli tlijey'■??Jsh, to exploit. A few months ago the reason they would have given was that money " tight," as City men Bay, but tlsafc explanation will not hold good now. The facfc ia that there is hardly a New Zealand mine paying a dividend at present, and with the ghaetiy failures of the Antimony and Red Hill and other companies brought prominently before them month by month, men of business will not take the trouble to even look ;nto the bona tides of the mine - mongers who seek their ,aid, let alone -go into the qaestion of the value of the property they bring i tor sale. Of course the difficulties of I the National Bank of New Zealand mnafc ! influence City men to a great extent, bub such considerations do not weigh with them half so much as the damning l;act that New Zealand mines floated in London hare mostly burned out bottomless pits into which investors' money has been poured in vain. In many cases oue cannot hold thdfi fche New Zealand vendors -were to blame. ihey came to London with, modest ideas as to the value of their property. Let ue\ay thoy imagined that £40,000 would be ample capital not only to satisfy their demands, but also to leave sufficient working capital. On arrival they manage to get some one to take them up for a consideration—so many shares or so much cash. So far, so good; "the labourer ie worthy of his hire." Unfortunately, it generally happens that backer Iso. 1 is nob strong enough, to carry out the floating of the company. A second person 1 ia " interested," and promises to bring the vendor and his first friend into contaicb s ■ with the "right men "for a consideration., The "right men" do not give their valuable aid free, of course. Forty thousand pounds does not offer greab chances of what is technically known as i '" plunder," and in due course the vendpr is persuaded thafe his property cannob come to the eyes of the public unless bhafc gullible body are asked to subscribe I £100,000! Eventually, then, che mine is launched, over-capitalised by sixty thousand pounds. Unless it is a veritable El Dorado, how can ib possibly bear the ! burden ? The sequel is shown in the present I condition of many enterprises, which it would be impolitic to name. Another, cause which tends to the eventual dissolution of mining ventures, which nave perhaps started on a fair basis, is the fact that the machinery wich which the' Board'sengineerdecides toequiptherainefin many cases he it guided entirely by. hearsay) is totally uantted for the. work it ie expected to do. The result is naturally disastrous. Ore which, properly treated,, would yield an ounce per toa, only pans out perhaps sdwb. The directors decide to try new machinery and buy <m expensive plant of which they know nothing, with equally disappointing results. During the pasbsix months all excuses for such errors have been knocked on the head. Ore can now be sent Home in samples, of half a ton or even less, and for a few.pounds experts will advise as to the process ami machinery suitable for the min<a. One or two prominenfe London firma make a specialty of this sort of business, and -have erected extensive premises for the carrying out of ore tests, etc. How much money*would have been saved in the vaiious New Zealand mines alone if such works h;ad been in operation six or seven years aga, I wonder?" So far I have only spoken of , mines and gold mines more particularly, but New Zealanders will find it just as difficult to launch any commercial enterprise on the Home market at the present time, and colonials with notions of coming , to England ; for the purpose of exploiting: mining or other ventures will be well advised if they abandon their schemes till confidence is restored. Speculation for the time being is dead. New Zealand is nob the only colony to which these statements apply, bub her affairs have been more particularly to the fore of Late owing to the National Bank of New Zealand's troubles. The failure of the River Plate Bank and the common report that another big firm of bankers is in Queer-street and will presently fail, has utterly destroyed the spirib of speculation, and months musft elapse ere the London market is in a favour* able condition for company-floating.