Untitled

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1970, 28 August 1869, Page 2

The Arckland fever does not abate. In fact it seems rather to increase in intensity than otherwise. By the Northern Mail we have received two New Zealand Gazettes ; one of the 21st and the other of the 24th inst. They

contain notices of the formation of about thirty-five new mining companies —chiefly in the Province of Auckland. There are only four elsewhere : two on the West Coast, one in Wellington and one in Canterbury. In estimating the value of the projects, these may be disregarded fox - the timid peddling way in which they go to work, conti’asts strangely with the large ideas of our Northern fellow-colo-nists. There is, however, this in favoi’ of the Southern schemes—they are more likely to be bona fide than the others ; for the whole amount pi’oposed to be raiswd is only £6,180, of which £365 has been paid up. Turning from these sober figures to the capital proposed to be raised, axxd said to be paid up in Auckland, it must strike every one that there is misrepresentation somewhere. In its wildest days of speculation, Melbourne never put forward such extravagant pretensions as are proclaimed through the New Zealand Gazette as having been realised in Auckland. Tens of thousands of pounds seem to have been rained upon a Province that only very few months back was deemed almost banki’upt. Were the schemes stated to be only projects to be carried out in so many shai'es, the matter would be bad enough, but when it is declared that hundreds of thousands of pounds have been paid tip, the public who are asked to take shares have a right to know if it is true. On the 21st inst., the formation of sixteen companies is Gazetted; the shares represent capital to the sum of L 411,567, and it is stated that L 351,010 has been paid up. As Hunt’s rich claim is included in this amount, and is set down for a working capital of £224,000, of which £219,520 is paid up, the remaining companies seem moderate in their arrangements compared with those announced in the next Gazette . On the 24th, nineteen new companies are said to have been formed, representing shai’es amounting to £376,440, of which it is stated that £305,645 has been paid xip. The Colony may fairly ask, Where is the swindle 1