CAN SUCH THINGS BE?

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1362, 28 May 1895, Page 5

CAN SUCH THINGS BE?

THE VALUE OF COLOR. In a mining districG where quartz reefs are believed to be payable a prospecting company spent £1,200 to prove the value of a reef. Another lease adjoins this property upon which some work was done many years ago, but the present owners have done nothing. The first party are not favorably disposed (in a political sense) to the Seddon Government, nor the Seddon Government to the individual members of that prospecting party. No. 2 company is composed of a band of speculators of the right color. No. 1 party hold the only water right worth having in the neighborhood of the reefs, and had to cease work for want of means (about £400) to complete their water race. A grant of £IO,OOO was voted by Parliament last year for assistance to water races. Very little of this sum has been expended, except at Kumara. One of the shareholders of No. 1 company waited on Mr Cadrnan, the Minister of Mines, a couple of months ago, to obtain a slice of this vote. He was referred to regulations made last year, and these proved to be of such a vexatious and possibly expensive character as to render them inoperative, but as they finished up with " the Minister could grant or refuse the application," the prospector returned to the Minister and remarked that the granting of £ for £ depended entirely on his goodwill. "No " was the answer. His Highness the Premier was also approached with a similar result. A week or so afterwards No. 2 company entered into negotiations with No. 1 company for a right to use half the water if they found half the cost of completion. A tentative consent was given, and then they applied at the office of the dispenser of goldfields votes, and were sent away rejoicing with the assurance that £ for £ would be granted up to £2oo.—Nelson Mail.