MR. GRIFFITHS’ SHARE-LIST.

Marlborough Express, Volume VI, Issue 297, 17 June 1871, Page 5

MR. GRIFFITHS’ SHARE-LIST.

Sir, —A flash in the pan from the quill of C. J. W. Griffiths, sharebroker, dropped into the Telegram of the 14th instant, in the shape of a letter headed “ Mr Gorrie’s Share List.” In this letter Mr Gorrie is lectured in the first paragraph for having dared to quote the value of interests in mining operations before they are registered—he no doubt means registered companies—but if Mr Gorrie chooses to do so, what needs Mr Griffiths trouble ? But especially why does he so quickly follow Mr Gorrie’s example ? and the more especially when he finds it so difficult to judge the real value of any reef until the results of crushings are known. I would inform Mr Griffiths and your readers that I published my price list from the knowledge I acquired in the business, and also from personal test of the most of the companies’ properties that I quoted. , : Mr Griffiths regrets that I did not more carefully inform myself, for with the exlmberance (by the way, I have made a note of that word, and spell it without the h) of a novice 1 wished to give a roseate hue to the share market, and he doubts the wisdom of it. Now, as my back is broad enough to bear the responsibility I have taken in publishing a share list, I don’t thank him for his sympathy, and deny any attempt to put any color on the share market, but only quoted from my own office, not from hearsay. If Mr Griffiths has shares either higher or lower, on hand, he has a perfect right to report or advertise them, as I claim on my own behalf the same privilege, and I think it was impudent and assuming on his part to attack me for it. But in his third paragraph he says, “ Come to facts,” and opens with my quotation, “Sutherland scrip 255, but none for sale,” and goes on to advertise that a quantity can be obtained at par, or even below. Yes, I can quite understand a gentleman of his standing having no particular value for Sutherland or any other company’s shares, for if I was very hard pressed for a few pounds, I might be glad as some have been to sell at any sacrifice; but my quotation was from transactions where there was no such pressure, and parties chose to hold at that figure, and I claim the right to quote from my own knowledge, and say again allow Mr Griffiths to do ditto. He goes on to show that shares have changed hands only a few days ago at 15s, but again later transactions have been registered at 19s. Now, can your readers understand from these exchanges within so short a space of time that the fixed value for the time being ought to be 19s, in the face of shareholders being firm at 25s in my office, and the fact of the Company having withdrawn about 100 shares from the market. I fear a tailor’s little bill, or some such catastrophe, has influence in an office where there can be such wavering as 20 per cent, in the last few days, as most holders are inclined to risk at my quotation pending the crushing, which has now commenced.

“Masonic only in original hands” he states is incorrect, as more than one sale has taken place. I think the public are quite aware that two gentlemen did buy in, and so am I, but even then I hold that these parties are original proprietors in this Company, the same as any two miners pay so much to be allowed by another party in alluvial ground to have a share as agreed. So much for that correstion. Homeward bound he also cuts at, as shares are in the market for half my quotations—perhaps they are. Since I disposed of half a share for £lO, a few weeks ago, I have not learned of anything having been clone to bring the shares down in the market; and the other half can be had only for £lO, so I added to my quotation “firm.” There is no accounting at times for shares being at half the market price, hut it is frequently attributed to the tailor’s nuisance, and the only way to cure those gentlemen, when they insist on too frequent interviews, I find is to say, “ Confound you, if you come back again I will give you an order for another new suit.” But to proceed with my dissection. “Blenheim, only in original hands.” And here that wonderful knight of the quill chuckles evidently, and, when he had rubbed his hands, stretched his legs, wiped his spectacles, and writes “ wrong

again,” for sUndty feasons. Allow iile to say 16 is so many mates taking up so much ground, ad in the Masonic.

Then follows Golden Crown at £4O. In thid he is right in saying it is too low, but this being the reef that men are offering almost fabulous prices for shares in. how does it tally with the writers accusation that I wished to give a roseate hue. Allow me to inform your readers the figures were a misprint, for that w; S intended to be £57 instead of £4O, shares being in the ascendancy every hour from little or nothing up to £2O, .£25, £2B 10s, and after my report was in the office to ££3o. Here the writer gushes (having made an assertion first that I question) namely, that business had been done at .£OO before my notice was in the office, if that is what he means, and then goes on to say that £IOO has been offered and refused, the same party that refused £IOO told me since that he would not take £SOO for his share. So your readers will see that it was difficult to fix the figure for these shares just as you were going to press, ' Paragraph number four. How feelingly Mt Griffiths offers a piece of advice, and that in the best possib’e spirit. The thing is so contemptible that to have treated it with silence would, I doubt not, have been ray better part ; but that is hard to do, and I prefer blowing off steam through j our medium, knowing pretty well that the eyes of the whole world are not waiting anxiously for a glimpse of Griffiths’ share list, or Gorrie’s either, and I think we are both so well known in the locality that the less said by way of showing others’ faults the better." _ I leave the public to judge, but my own opinion is of these letters ; “ Pot—Kettle.”

And now with respect to his postcript, your 1 readers will be the best judges as to the truth* fulness of the whole matter. Believing that to be of service in future to the public, a report of business done during the week at my office is all that is necessary, with such variations in form and information as I may deem advisable from time to time to add. However, one word with my brother broker before parting. My apology for mentioning your name so often is that it appears to me that your attack upon me was really intended to be an advertisement for yourself at my expense, and this is a second edition without cost, and in future when you wish to bring your* self into public notice, stand on your own merits, and when you cannot speak well of any one, strive to say no harm of him—rather be silent—and I will always be glad to read your authorised share list, and sales by auction, if you should ever have any, with much pleasure ; and these alone are bound eventually to bring you into notoriety, without picking holes in your neighbor’s coat.—l am, &c. James Gorrie, Sharebroker. Blenheim, June IGth, 1871. •

Cruel. The correspondent of the Otarjo Daily Times says :—The aspect of Picton is decidedly depressing. It is built on a small flat surrounded by steep hills, for the most part bare of trees or scrub. It seems entirely shut out—or shut in, the terms in this case are synonymous—from the rest of the world : “a jumping off place,” as the Yankees say. “The only thing that Picton is adapted for,” saida fellow passenger of mine, “is a graveyard ”; and I don’t think he was very far wrong. Blenheim, I was told, was a considerably larger place, and it would require to be so if the projected Picton and Blenheim railway is not to be anything more than a costly farce ; for the whole of Picton—houses, inhabitants, and all—could be carried away in a single train. Sheep were grazing in the middle of the main street in the centre of the town, and the inhabitants stared at us as the original inhabitants of the Sound nd doubt did at Captain Cook, as if they wondered what had brought us to that out of the way corner of the world.