AUCKLAND,

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7626, 25 December 1886, Page 3

AUCKLAND,

[FROM OUR OWN COItKESrONDKNT.] December 21, ISBO. People at Home are quite enthusiastic about the colonies since the Exhibition brought them more prominently beforo the English public, lmfc 1 tni.st that the enthusiasm will be tempered l>y a mca-sure of counnon sense, for otherwise there is a danger of a rebound, and the colonies may recede in popular estimation tw rapidly as, and to a greater extent than, they have arisen during the last few months. Owing, I suppose, to the abundance of money in the English market and consequent low -rate of interest, and tlio dillicnlty of finding investments except at very low rates, the people are tempted to embark in speculations tlio soundness of which they have no means of verifying, and among others there seems to be a mania for goldmining enterprises, Queensland being so far the chief Jand of promise to which attention has been directed. No- doubt there is auriferous ground in Australia and in New Zealand, and .some of it might perhaps be worked profitably by an outlay of capital : but, on the other hand, there is a vast extent of ground, both auriferous and nonauriferous, on which money may be laid out to any conceivable extent, with no prospect of return to the investors, but with more or less pecuniary advantage to promoters,, directors, share-speculators, and employe's of various kinds. Now even to people on the spot this is n very risky kind of enterprise : it may be, and often becomes, mere gambling; but on the other hand, where it is under local control, it seldom lasts very long without yielding sonic gold, and that is a gain— not perhaps to the shareholders, but to the community. Suppose, for instance, we spend one hundred pounds for each fifty pounds' worth of gold raised, (hat way be a gain of JEiiO to the community on the . transaction, Ido not nay it is so, bub there is iifty pounds' worth of gold added to the general slock,_ and the hundred pounds it cost to raise it has simply changed hands, so that the question 'arises : Could the labor, which this £100 has paid for in ono way or another, have been more profitably employed than in raising iso worth of gold ? That, I think, depends on circumstance 1 ; ; we might perhaps have to pay £70 in charitable aid, and liave no gold to show for it, or anything else, but so many pairs of hands in so many pairs of pockets. But, having run oil' the rails into the region of political economy, I will try bapk to the point from which T intended tp start whe-u my ideas went off at a tangent. In the ~N.Z. Herald of Friday I read' this telegram, dated front the Thames;— "At a meeting of gentlemen

interested in mining, Colonel Fraser informed them that Sir Julius Yogel would lend all his influence towards floating Thames companies in England. Rumour says that tho proprietors of tho three sections of the .Kimmui ground will probably combine' to place their properly on the' English marker.." I snppo.se this refers to the ground of the late Kuriuuri Hill Uokhiiiiriny Company, now being wound .up voluntarily, and the ground anil machinery of which hiiß*l believe, been sold. The company originated somo twelve or fourteen years ago, by an arrangement to amalgamate tlireo old companies who.se ground was partly work oil out ; it has been going on in a sleepy way all these years, working portions of the ground by " tributors," and' expending tho tribute-money in pumping and delving at the lower levels. There was not much capital required apparently, beyond that. derived from the tribute, for . calls were - seldom made, and wore not nearly exhausted when the shareholders were called together to consider the propriety of winding up. V.'hat was the result of the company's labor.-i for ton or a dozen years I don't suppose many of tho shareholders know, beyond tho bare statements of the animal reports and balance-sheets. Shareholders, under the Companies Acts, and still more under the complicated mass of legislation affecting giildinining companies, must live in faith — rbut as regards the company in question it was wound up, and I think only about half its capital had been called up. However, it never paid any dividend, and I suppose the shareholders were sick of it. There was some gold in the ground, but presumably not enough to encourage further efforts,' although there was a considerable portion of the share capital still available. Under these circumstances it seems to me that if formed into a company in England there will bo considerable risk of disappointment to the shareholders.

But that is only a secondary matter arising out of the telegram 1 have quoted. " Sir Julius Vogol will lend all his influence towards floating Thames companies in England," is the moie important matter leferred to. I should like to know

in what capacity hu proposes to do this ; surely not whilst ho (ills the ollice of Colonial Treasurer? When Sir Julius was the — chairman, was it not? — of (he New Zealand Agricultural Company and likewise Agent-General, it was felt, and very properly felt, by the Ministry then ill office, that the two were incompatible, and he was called upon to eject which he would vacate ; but surely there in n still greater incompatibility in the Colonial Treasurer using the influence of his position to float goldmiiiing ventures which at the best must have a very speculative character, but which, being endorsed by

the Colonial Treasurer of the colony, wouldi be looked upon by investors as having something very like a Government guarantee. Ido not suppose iho present incumbent of the Treasury, although he has experience, is likely to retain much influence in his individual capacity as a promoter of companies, as some at least of those with which lie was conned ed have been attended with results disastrous to the shareholders. But if all tho goldcompany floating for the colony is to be under the special care of tho Treasury, that department will require enlargement for tlie protection of the British capitalists. But it is no use to discuss the matter with an air of seriousness. To bring out a parcel of companies for speculating in goldmining, and sonic of which would bo almost sure to be bogus companies ; to bring these out under the auspices — "influence" js tho word— of the Colonial Treasurer is simply out of the question ; there must be some mistake.

I observe on looking over your file of Heralds last received that there is a

project on foot for making a tramway to Taradnle, and a very good idea too, I should say, as a matter of public convenience, but I have no data on which to form an opinion whether it will pay. The gauge seems narrow, even as amended to 2 feet 9 inches, but it will probably do for the trattie for some years, and the road being level, and, as far as I remember, generally straight, it ought not to be a costly line to form. The narrow gauge reminds me of a beautiful ltttlo railway I travelled by in North Wales a few years ago. It was from Port Madoc to Festiniog in Carnarvonshire. The distance was fourteen miles, the .gauge one. foot eleven inches and a-half. The carriages were as good as those on other lines, but of course narrower, though they overlapped the line very, considerably, so that three persons could sit on the width of a

first-class carriage. Tlic speed was not great as compared with railways in that part of the world., but I think it took just an hour to do flic fourteen miles, and it it was on a considerable gradient all the way. The engine was a " double bogie," Fail-lie's patent. Some of the carriages here are built on this plan, which gives the engine great length to make up for its short breadth, and it is carried on two carriages, allowing it play in going round the curves, which are frequent and sharp on that line. This lino leads to a

number of slate quarries in tho mountains, and its principal puipose was to bring down slates aiul take up stores, &c. The trains of slate trucks travel down to Port Madoc without an engine because of the gradient, but the engine which draws the passenger trains takes up a number of empty trucks also. The scenery all Hie way up the valley which this line skirts is most beautiful. Although the gauge is so narrow the carriages run very steadily, and at a speed nearly the same as our New Zealand lines. When 1 was at Festiniog there was another line open, a branch, of the London and North- Western, to compete for the slate traffic, and a third was beinjj constrcted to connect with the Great Western system. This is one of those cases in which competition overdoes the requiremens of a limited tratlic, where railways are constructed by private companies.

A week or two ago a large Roman Catholic Church, St. Benedicts', which stood very conspicuously on a hill in

the outskirts of Auckland in the direction of Mount Eden, was burnt, together with several cottages, some of which stood on adjoining sections, and were the properly of the Church trustees. Thereupon tho ltoman Catholics ciecidcd to take measures for re-building forthwith, and as a good deal" of sympathy was expressed, they proposed to call a pnblic meeting, "as the best means of taking advantage of this general manifestation of good will," and the Mayor was asked to preside, Bishop Luck interviewing him for that purpose. The Mayor, however, did not see the matter in the same light, tiie object being to raise subscriptions for one particular denomination only, and ' lie did not see that as Mayor lie could with propriety undertake to preside. Some discussion ensued, in the courso of which the Mayor mentioned that some years ago be bad occasion to solicit subscriptions for a Protestant place of worship, but all the Koman Catholics to whom bo spoke on the subject refused to subscribe. The Bishop replied that Koman Catholics occupied a dilfcrcnt position to that of other denominations. They were taught to believe that theirs was the only true Church, and it was a matter of conscience with them not to contribute to Churches that proclaimed (liflerenl doctrines. l!ut they had no objections to receive money for religious purposes from persons outside their Church, This doctrine has given rise to some discussion, and as tlic public meeting has been abandoned, I suppose Prolestant.s are awakened to the fact that they ought not to contribnie lo the support of a Church which leaches doctrines contrary lo those held by any VrotostantH. I bad will ten nearly all the foregoing whan I received Iho Even in;/ Stay.wMi a long telegraphic account of the great lire in Napier, in which- both the Hicham) and the Telegraph oliiccs were destroyed, besides many other buildings. I was horry to hear of this catastrophe, for I can remember Napier when the entire flat on which tlio.se buildings stood was as bare as the lire lias now left a portion of it. I remember the lafco James Wood coining down from Auckland to .start the Ilki;ai,p a?, a small weekly journal, and from that small beginning I have watched its progress stop by step, until the establishment with all its modern appliances would have done credit to a much larger and more populous town than Napier.