NEW ZEALAND MINES IN LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 135, 9 June 1898, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND MINES IN LONDON.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, May G, MEETINGS.

Hie first ordinary general meeting of the reconstructed WaiUskauri Extended Gold Mining Company occurred under the presidency of Mr Ceo, Hardio on Tuesday last, The chairman said, inter alia, that the new company was registered* on 3rd January, with a capital of £175,000 divided into 350,000 shares of 10s each. Of that number 333,000 were available for allotment to the shareholders, credited with 8s (id per share paid up, leaving a liability of Is (Id per share. The remaining shares can only be issued at par. Out of the 333,000 shares, 323,000 were allotted the remaining 10,000 being held iv New Zealand. It was necessary under New Zealand Jaws to give them a certain amount of time to enable them to take up those shares if they desire to do so. Out of the 10,000 shares available for the colony 7,000 had been already applied for and he had no doubt that tho remaining 3,000 would be taken up. Therefore, he thought he might say that the whole of the 333,000 shares would bo taken up by the shareholders iv the old company. Some of those present at the meeting held when the question of reconstruction was under consideration thought that, a guarantee would be necessary in order to place tho capital of the now company. The directors held a different view and decided not to underwrite tho^apital in any shape or form. They offered the new shares to the shareholders in tho Company and the whole of them had boon taken up without the Company paying a single sixpence in tho form of guarantee. This would probably save the Company something like £2,000. In tho statement issued to the shareholders at the time the Company was contemplating reconstruction tin: liabilities were estimated at about £0,000. That statement was based upon the information which we received from ojir responsible advisors in New Zealand. When the company went into liquidation the affairs of the old company passed into the hands of tho liquidator and the directors now understand that the amount ol" the liabilities in the colony at tho time of tin; reconstruction might possibly amount to £10,000. When the new Hoard met they felt that it was not only desirable but that it was practically the unanimous wish of tho shareholders, that there should be a change of management in New Zealand. They therefore felt bound to dispense with the services of our former manager and representative in the colony appointed in his place Mr 11. C. Wouliner who was known to many of thoslmrehulders in the company.

Mr flardic then submitted soveral extracts from the new manager's report on the property, from which it appeared that a change in management was indeed very bad';.- needed. _\ n to the quality of the property, Mr Woo! titer'* opinion thereof may be gaugud from these excerpts from hisre-pmls:~-lSlh February, "j have formed a good opinion of your property, but it now requires time and money to properly develop it. The nrc is low grade, hist with'earefulnndecoiioiiiicinanagumontitshouldpay." March Isth. " I am not quite prepared yet to give yon exact figure* regarding the amount oi payable quartz in sight until 1 have sampled tho whole mine thoroughly from end to end, but, in any caso it will not amount to more than 5,000 or 0,000 ton j of 30s ore. In No. I level, I have carefully sampled about '200 tons of broken quartz, and the average value of this goes ■hi-. Fifty feet is about the width of this pay chute, which appears to me to be dipping womb, and i* cut again in the level inflow, hi« reasonable, though, to take a belter view of this mine iv general, for the following reasons : The mine is not properly opened, ami therefore it is difficult to get at the fair value, though i must admit all my samples prove it to be a very low grade proposition. The ore seems to bo very amenable to sorting on a large ami easily managed scale as from appearances the good and bad ore can be detected. The quartz appear* more valuable the deeper it goes. Very much depends on No. 3 level and if the ore carries a bullion | value of, say, .'IDs a ton this will become a I big property, as the quartz can be easily I mined and treated.

• Mr Woolmei's very sober reports were received with evident satisfaction, and the Chairii a i wound up in a very hopeful strain. Said he : " You will gather from those extracts that an immense amount of work has been done, but that a good deal of it lias been imperfectly done and will have to be gone over again to a certain extent. I feel convinced that Mr Woollier would not havft accepted the management of this mine if he were not satisfied that he was going to make it a success. It is within my personal knowledge that at the time we made an oiler to M r Wool mer to take the management he had an equally good oiler from a very largo company to lake the management of their mine and he chose to take ours. If seems to me, therefore, that Mr Woolmer must believe that he is going to make our mine a success. There is no doubt, that, the success of the mine depends upon what, we may cut iv No, 3 level—-the deep level. !t is satisfactory to know that the ore is getting better as we go deeper. That is always a good sign in a mine. A mine often starts with good prospects on the surface, and then they get poorer as they go deeper. We appear to have begun with poor ore on the surface, but there is every prospect of its getting better as we go deeper.'

The .shareholders applauded, and then had a free ami easy discussion of.no particular importance, the meeting coming to an end with the usual vote of thanks.