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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9057, 18 May 1888, Page 4

The prompt exposure of the fraud attempted to be "worked with th ground of the Marototo Broken Hill Company is largely due to the honest vigour of Mr. Warden Northcroft aided as our Wellington correspondent shows, by the action of Ministers h was no part of his duty to direct a ejoldfields , officer to take samples of stone from a piece of ground for -which he was asked as Warden to issue a license. He might simply have satin his Court and administered the law issuing a lease when the necessary conditions had been complied with, giving protection in order to get machinery erected —in fact, doing his duty according to rule and routine. Supposing he had done this, and supposing that things had gone on swimmingly f or a time, and that in some months after this the shareholders in the Broken Hills Marototo Company had commenced to work their mine, and had found that they had been swindled still nobody could have said a word to the Warden. But he ventured the bold course of stepping beyond the strict lines of his duty. Hearing it reported that the stuff upon the assays of which the mine had been floated in Sydney had not been taken from the ground Mr. Northcroft adopted effectual steps' to make sure of the doubtful point with the result stated by us yesterday! Mr. Northcroft deserves every coml mendation for what he has done, and all the more that it involves some risk respecting his future action. One danger is that, if he makes it his business to assure the bona. fides of every step taken with regard to ground placed in the market, he may get into serious embarrassment. Purchasers of ground must take precautions for then own safety. The old maxim of caveat emptor must not be forgotten. In the present instance the Sydney gentlemen seem to have taken no steps to make certain of the very first point, namely, did the stuff assayed come out of the ground 1 Upon Mr. G. S. Jakins a double obligation lay, to make sure that the ore came from the claim he was selling, but he seems to have taken no precautions whatever. But at present we desire to refer to another point upon which we wish to tender a word of warning. Mr. Northcroft is reported to have stated in the Warden's Court "That he would not give a license until work had been done to prove the character of the reefs in the ground." It is possible that Mr. Northcroft was speaking only about the case of the lease applied for by Walsh for the Broken Hills Marototo ground, and accidentally made his assertion too sweeping and general. We are as much averse as anyone can be to favour any policy which -would lock up ground, but we think the Warden must see that it would be impossible to carry out his rule. Prospectors are not men of capital. If these men had capital they would not embark in a toilsome work in which the blanks are out of all proportion to the prizes. If they do make a find they are bound to seek assistance to develope it, and however good a "show" they may have they cannot makearrangements to get to work within a few weeks. Then capitalists will not take interests in any piece of ground, unless as a preliminary part, and beyond all questions as to the character of & ore, they are certain that till they have full opportunity to test and prove the ground it shall be secure. That is absolutely essential, and must be considered in all applications that come before the Warden. A claim which must be worked by mining for quartz which has to be crushed in a battery, ii in a very different position from an alluvial claim, where a man needs only the simplest appliances, and at once washes the gold out of the auriferous dirt. There is even a difference between the present, and the time when the Thames goldfield was opened. Then, in most of the claims about Grahamstown and Shorthand, gold could be immediately made visible, and crushing power could be obtained at public batteries on the flat. But the circumstances are very different at Marototo and Waihi, and other part* of the peninsula lately opened with the very best prospects. There we have to deal with "refractory" ores, containing, it is true, an enormous percentage of valuable bullion, but difficult ot treatment. The precise process by which these extensive reefs can be treated has not yet been ascertained and determined, and probably several processes will have to be adopted. Mr. Northcroft must see, on consideration, that it is absolutely impossible to insist upon immediate manning ot the ground. We make these remarks in the interests of the prospecting of the country. It has been proved ana shown that prospecting is only carried on when the men engaged in the wort know that if they find a likely reet they will get the assistance of capital to develop it. Of late, much of this work has been done, especially in the district between Marototo and vv aitekauri, and it is quite certain that to insist upon full manning, or that the character of the reefs should be at once determined, would lead to the entire abandonment of the ground. In some cases, a splendid reef may be apparent in one claim, and it may be quite certain that it passes through the next claim. But in that one it may not be possible to reach the reef till a shait has been sunk some distance, and, that cannot be done by the men who brsc peg out the ground.