MISLEADING PROSPECTUS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19113, 23 September 1927, Page 8

MISLEADING PROSPECTUS.

♦ REFERENCES IN PARLIAMENT. [THE PRESS Special Scrvlcs.] WELLINGTON, September 22. In the House of Representatives today Mr J. R. Hamilton asked the Minister for Mines whether he had seen the prospectus of the Hillside Collieries, Ltd., i,n which ' it was stated that the three mines to be incorporated in the company, viz., Rotowaro, Glen Afton, and Pukemiro, were supplying 800 tons of coal per day to the New Zealand Railways, and if such a statement was correct, or if it was contrary to fact. The Hon. Mr Anderson (Minister for Mines) replied that he had seen the prospectus. The statement that the j three mines were selling' not less than 800 tons of coal per day to the railways was incorrect. From May 7th to July 23rd, 1927, only 754 tons of coal per week, and not per day, were supplied to the Railway Department. Enquiries he had made showed that at the present time there was no justification for the statement that the coal to be mined from the property to be acquiifd by the proposed company would be largely used in the near future by the Railwayy Department. "I understand,/' added Mr Anderson, "that that Department has no information regarding the suitability of Hillside coal for its purposes. I am sorry to say that the prospectus does not fully quote the analysis given in Bulletin 18 of the Geological Department, there having been omitted the percentage of sulphur, which is 2.70."