MINING NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 12026, 26 October 1903, Page 6

MINING NEWS.

The directors of the Manuherikia Company have declared a dividend of 2s per share, payable on November 1 (this day week). During the last four months shareholders in this company have received in dividends £13,200. or 22a per share. The Moonlight dredge ha.< met with art accident, and is now stranded with 4ft 9in of water in the pontoon*. x is such an accident had not been anticipated, a pump has had ■to be sent to the claim in order to get her afloat again. The dredge-master of the Golden Bed Company reports there was no wash-up for the week ended October 24. He has been coming out into the river to take the dredge to the bottom of the claim, and will reach the boundary by Thursday next, when be wffl wash-up. The drf.dffe-master of the Cromwell No. 1 wired on Saturday that the river was rising and thai there was no chance of starting work_ fj,- another week. The master of the No. u-edge wires that he will not be ready to.siiUc till the middle of the week. The New Cbjllagoe Railway and Mines have, at the instance of the London shareholders, issued a statement of accounts foi the half-year ended June 30 last. In addition, reports by Mr Greenway (general manager) and Mr Back (railway superintendent) are included, but the directors themselves have not thought it necessary to supply any report of their own. This may be because the statement is an interim one. The working account shows a profit of £2L,533. Owing to the payment of debenture interest, amounting to £14,199, mineral leases, rent, and other expenses, this profit is reduced in the profit and loss, account to £1,49 L Gn

the credit side of the balance-sheet the principal items of interest are stoeke on hand, etc.. £23,095; sundry debtors, iil'.aO; buLion a:,d products on'band and m transit, £34,947; cash at bank and at vorks, £33,306. On the debtor side the item "sundry creditors" stands at £29,842. The company's holding of Mungana shares appears in the accounts as at- £25,000. The amount of £667 has been written off " debentures, discount, and expenses account," which now stands at £20.699.

At the meeting of the recently-formed Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company the only bit? o-I intelligence furnished by the directors was that dividends will in future be paid each half-year. This arises from the greater size of the company. The Board expect to pay their first dividend early in the new year. The special mining commissioner of the | Economist,' in an article on gold mining investments, advances the postulate that shares, to be on an investment basis, must yield at least a clear 10 per cent, on the purchase price, and that the ore reserves must represent a profit in sight of well over cue-half of the mine's market value. He explains that an investor is foolish to buy into a mine which does not come up to this standard, giving as one of the risks to be run the fact that people usually buy shares, not when the market is bad, but when it is good, or even when it is inflated. There is a general feeling of optimism in tie air. One hears his friends remark that their shares are going up. What mere natural than that he, having money to invest, should teke tlsat opportunity to purchase. He is thus often at a disadvantage from the beginning, for the market reaction is as natural as the returning swing of a pendulum. He sees his shares, even if he has selected the safe*, fall perhaps, 10 or 15 per cent., and., although his dividend comes in regularly, it may be a year or two before the shares again stand a't the price he paid for them. In the meantime, from some reason impossible to have foreseen, he may require this capital for more urgent use elsewhere. But he can only realise it at a loss of perhaps 15 per cent. A dividend of 10 per cent., hi the meanwhile, cannot compensate for this loss. It must be remembered, too, that very often the best shares intrinsically are tie most stagnant on the Stock Exchange. Speculators have lost interest in them. It does not matter to them if the mine is making £I,OOO a day ; it pays dividends only perhaps twice a year, and for the rest of tie time the market again relapses into stagnation. Investors are only human. It may be that this continual inaction month after month, while gambling shares all round them go up by leaps and bounds, gets on their neryes, and they at ktst decide to sell oat their good, but stagnant, shares at no profit, or even at a small loss.

There were special considerations concerned in the amalgamation of the Mounb Lyell and North Lyell Companies, which may not have been generally known. The position was like this:—On the same mountain slope, within a mile or a mile and a-half of each other., lie two large deposits of copper ore. One deposit, belonging to the Mount Lyell, is a mass of pyritdc ore, containing chiefly iron and snlphur; the other, belonging to North Lyell, is a 'silieicras ore, containing silica and" ahrmina as its chief components. These two types of ore, when blended in the furnace, make an almost ideal smelting combination, one acting as a flux for the other. But if each ore is treated separately, complications arise, which can only be got over at big expense! Each deposit lies at about an equal distance from the Mount Lyell smelter, and is connected with an aerial tram line.

RETURNS. Waimumu Queen : 88oz 2dwt, 259 hours. Perseverance No. 1 : 30oz 3dwt, week. Rising Sun: 17oz 17dwt, 90 hours. liarnselcugh No. 1: 40oz 17dwt 12gr, 131 hours. Eemsckugli No. 2: 540?;. 129 hours. Chicago: llaz ISdwt, 113 hours. Golden Gate: 280/. sd\vt, week. New Teviot: 14oz 4dwt, weekIsland Block: 20j>: 5-dwt. week. Royal Waimumu : S7oz ldw*, 130 hours. MacCbarlton: IGoz 10dwt„ 110 hours. WaiVaku: 12o:-.. 121 hor.vs. Waikaka Que-, i; : oloz 3dwt, 128 hours. Waikaka Syndicate: 12oz lldwt, 127 hours.

Shsd don's Freehold : 230z, \v.\k. Muddy Creek : 21o< 3dwt, 116 hours. Succors: 13oz 4dwt, week. Happy Valley : 29nz lOdwt, week. Ngapara No. 3 : Toz 4dw.t, 125 hours. WEST COAST. Nelson Creek: !07oz. 121 hours. Mosquito: 27nz. 126 houre. Jamieson's Reward : 4807. 18dwt, 100 hours. Blackwato Lagoon's: 350z 13dwt, 13-5 hours. Premier Buller: 290z, 100 hours. New Commissioner's Flat: 28oz 4dwt, 98 hours. Welcome: 21o;-\ 126 hours. Cornwall : 9or„ 104 hours. Moonlight: 260/. 9dwt. 116 hours. THE SHARE MARKET. DUXTCDIN EXCHANGE. This morning's sides: —Hartley andEflrv 75/. 75/. 74/6. Quotation-?: Al—Buy 5/. Aiding;*—Sel 7;'. Alexandra Lead—Sel 8/ Alpine. No. 2—Biiv 15/. sel 17/. Bignell's No Town—Buy 13/. Blackwater (ccntrib,)—Buv' 2/6 p; sd 5/ p. Central Charlton—-Buv 6/, sel 9/. Charlton Creek—Sel 7/6. Lhinstnn Lead—&l 12/6 Electric—Buy 20/. sel'2s/. Enterprise—Sid 23/6. Fourteen-mile Beach (pref. )—-Sel 18/6. Golden Run—Buy 19/, sel 22/6. Golden Treasure—Buv 26/ Golden United—Sel B.'. Happy Valley—Buy 5/, sel 6/6. Hartley and Rilev—Buv 74/.' s*l 75/. , Inchdale—Buv 4/9. Inch Valley—Buy 5/. Manuherikia—Buy 30/. sel 33/. Molyneux Kohinoor—Paid*, sel 7/9; contrib.. buy 12/ dis. sel 10/ dis. New Teviot—Buy 5/. Oceanic Steam—Buv 6/3, sel 6/6. Olrig—Buv 8/, sel 12/. Rise and Shine—Buv 23/, sel 33/. * Rising Sun—Sel 21/'. Tu: t peka—Buy 4/, sel 7/'. Lpjiei- Waipori (contrib.) —Sel 5/ p. Waimumu—-Sel 10/'. Waimumu Queen —Buv 10/ dis. Bank of N.Z.—Buy 75/. National Insurance-^-Buy 21/. National Mortgage—Buv 44/, sel 45/. N-Z. and River Plate (old issue)—Sel 26/ Perpetual Trustees—Sel 15/6. N.Z. Drug (40/ paid)—Buv 48/6. N.Z. Refrigerating—Sel 33/. M'Leod's Soap—Sel £l4 17s 6d. STOCK EXCHANGE NOTES. The Morynenx has risen Ift at Alexandra since Saturday, and is now at the 9ft 6in mark.

Three sales in Hartley and Riley's constituted the business done at this morning's will. Vahies continue to ease slowly in this as in the majority of Molyneux stock, one of the exceptions being Mamiherikias, in which the declaration cf a 2/ dividend bionght out buying offers up to 50/. Golden Treasures and Runs command steady inquiry, and Alpine No. 2 also, but the prices offered are not sufficient to tempt holders. Oceanic Steams were firmer, being unobtainable at 6/3. The Waimurou Queen appears at the head of this creek's Otago and Southland list, but the return is for a fortnight. Shares, which are paid up to 18/, were sought this morning at 10/ discount, but holders did not respond. What West Coast stocks -were quoted showed very little alteration, though BigDeJfs No Towns may have been a shade firmer.