MINING SHARES AT THE THAMES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1433, 20 June 1868, Page 4

MINING SHARES AT THE THAMES.

"We would refer our readers to Messrs Beetham, Walker, and Co.'s mining report, in anotherplace, as containing some very, interesting remarks of no little importance at tlie present moment.":Wei do'not so much, alludeito the satisfactory evidence afforded' of the rrapid* progress in prosperity which the- Thames Goldvfields is making, as to the remarks relative to thesWant of a proper system of registration of shares. It is this absence of security ,to purchasers of shares which has caused. one-half of the litigation, and which has interfered very largely in preventing capitalists from speculating in mining property.

The remarks relative to the wantof machinery and the paying nature of the investment of capital, not onlyjin crushing, machinery: but in the construction of water-flumes, is worthy of notice. In Otago and Hokitika larger fortunes were made by companies forming for the purpose of conveying water to the spots where it was scarce and largely needed, than by working the richest claims.

We cannot quit the notice of Messrs. Beetham, Walker, and Co.'s report without adverting more fully to the insecurity which at present exists in the holding of title of mining shares. Half-a-dozen own a claim, and any one of them may sell what "portion of his share he. pleases. It will occur that men are unprincipled enough, to sell shares twice over, or, holding a singleshare, to sell it all in sleeping halves or quarters, even though they do not sell a mere fraction of a share than the whole comprises. The only check upon this at present attempted has bsen the system of registration, but it is not properly carried out, for the simple fact that business has so accumulated that it may be three months before a sbare or portion of a share purchased can be officially registered. During that time fraud may be perpetrated almost with impunity, at least with very little prospect of being discovered before loss is incurred by the later purchasers.

It was with the view of obviating this difficulty that we have more than once urged upon the miners the advisability of registering their claims under the Mining Companies. Limited Liability Act of 1865. It will matter, then, little for the protection of the purchaser whether his share be registered or not, for he will receive not a mere transfer from an individual, but the legal scrip of the compamy. Nor would the purchaser alone benefit by this. Exactly in proportion as the transaction was made easier and safer would the value of the share be increased. The seller would get a; readier sale and a better price for liis share, the buyer a safer title.

We are sorry to perceive that the local journal at the Thames cannot or will not see the advantage it would be to the miners generally to place their claims under the Mining Companies Limited Liability Act of 1860. This is a very different Act to the Joint Stock Companies Act of 1860, as may be seen by comparison of the two. A. careful study of the former will show the working claim-owner at the Thames how much to his advantage it will be to bring his claim under the Act, even though the four, eight, or ten original claim-owners were the soleshareholders in it. Tiie rules and regulations which it imposes for the management of the claim are the best protection the industrious, honest, miner could have against the less sober, the less industrious, less honest mate who may form one of his company. The Mining Companies Act is framed not for the establishment of bubble speculations, but for the encouragement of real work, what no claim can prosper without

—order, and an efficient system of management

The placing their claim under the Act would not compel any one of the half-dozen owners of a claim to sell the smallest portion of .his share

to the " capitalist,"—the miner's best friend, by the bye—but it would enable him. if he desired to sell, to obtain a better price for it than he could obtain by selling as one of half-a-dozen original shareholders in a claim, where there was no guarantee of anything like system or order being carried out in its management. The miners, we think, will see that it is quite as much to their interest as to that of the speculator to inaugurate something like a system of good management in the working of the claims. Tt will add to their value as stock, and to their yield as a producing property. This is the system which this journal has always advocated, and we think when fairly viewed all but the prejudiced must admit that we have written in. the interest of the working miner, and of the development and prosperity of the Thames Gold-field as a wkole.