CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10128, 11 May 1896, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

GOLD IN TRINIDAD. TO THE EDITOR. . Sib,— am not at all surprised at the news that a rich find of gold has been made in Trinidad, assuming that the Trinidad in the West Indies is meant. The mountain range which contains gold in Venezuela, in such quantities that that part of South America was called El Dorado (the golden) by the Spaniards, is continuous geologically with the mountains that form the northern boundary of Trinidad. Ever since I saw anything of gold mining in Westland, I have felt certain that gold would some day be discovered in Trinidad, and I should have gone back to the island for the sake of prospecting if I had ever been able to scrape together the money I lost by coming to New Zealand. Five and twenty years ago the gold mines in Venezuela were worked by an American company, whioh made enormous profits. The managing director, a very clever and well educated man, used to come to Port of Spain very frequently, to recruit his health, and I knew him intimately. He told me that the quartz averaged eight ounces to the ton, and when I asked him where I could buy any hares, he replied, "Oh! there are no Shares or sale, my boy ? The company is a limited one, consisting of seven large capitalists, and they don't want to sell any shares-it is too good a thing." * The company employed about a tnousaipf men, of whom about one hundred Wet* whites. But th« sickness among these whites was so great that the company engaged a first-class physician from Chicago to go over, in order to suggest measures tor improving the health of the miners. The allaviai diggings were extremely rich, but the company did not meddle with them. Anybody might work them who liked, and some hundreds went over, but they all either died in a few weeks or were obliged to leaves broken down in health. 1 never saw worse specimens of the effect of a tropical climate on Europeans than some of theße fugitives from the mines whom I attended. The company's concession is on the disputed territory, and it is on account of the richness of the goldfields that Great Britain and the United States take such an interest in this dispute about territory. If there is a rush to the Trinidad goldfields it will ruin many of the planters and merchants, for it will he impossible to got labour on the plantations. I expect that the indented Coolies will all desert. I am writing this from a sick bed, so please exeuse (and correct) any little mistakes in spelling or grammar. But why siok bed ? It i 3 I that am sick, not the bed.— am, etc., R. H. BAKEWEIi. Devonport, May 9, 1896.

THE REMUNERATION OF LEGAL MANAGERS. TO THE EDITOR

Sir,— believe that the usual arrangement made with the legal manager of a mining company at the time of his engagement is that he shall receive bo much a week in salary and b« entitled to pocket all transfer fees. lam told that there is also a sort of understanding between the legal manager and his directors that he is entitled to retain any discounts or allowances he may get on settlement of the local accounts. So that when the legal manager settles an account for 20s he pays, say 15a, takes a receipt for the full2os and puts 5s into his own pocket From an auditor's point ot view, suoh disposal of fees and discounts can have no justification. There are grave objections and dangers attending such a system, and it must be unsatisfactory to the shareholders that they are entirely in the dark as to the amount of remuneration which their managers are receiving, I contend that legal managers should receive a fair and a fixed wage for their services, and that all transfer fees, discounts, or allowances should be treated as a part of the company's revenue.—l am, etc., Auditob.

SELLING GAME. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— " Country Settler's' 1 letter, which appears in your daily of thd Ist instant, drawing attention to the absurd and unjust license fee one has to take out now to shoot game, for I take it that the most of the pheasants killed are for sale—l think it is time the settlers were speaking with no uncertain sound about these pernicious birds, for there is no bird to-day in New Zealand that is so bold and destructive to the settlers. Your correspondent advocates poisoned maize for pheasants; I never could get them to look at it. We will have to seek for other means of destruction for our own preservation. Just now they are great on plucking up the fresh-sown grass and clover —splendid feed to fatten the townies on, no doubt, but not very helpful to the poor struggling settler. What is wanted is the power to take the management of the Rame laws altogether out of the control of ch« so-called Acclimatisation Societies. Regarding the extravagant license fee, it will not put a stop to pot-hunting, for pheasants will be just as plentiful in town this year as last. It will not certainly deter me from shooting nor yet deter me from letting my friends shoot over my ground to their heart's content, What is wanted is an Act, and at once, ts shoot four mouths in the year, beginning in March and ending in July. It is a most annoying thing that a man must be a poacher on his own ground because of thes« gams laws. New Zealand is only just becoming cursed like to the old country in its socalled game laws, which are bred in the towns and sprung on the country.—l am, etc., Clodhopper.

BOARD OP EDUCATION. TO THE EDITOR. Sib,—Permit me to offer you my respectful sympathy under the scolding which Mr. Wright inflicted in this morning's paper, apparently in much the same manner as be scolded the members of the Board who had the temerity to disagree with him. He is under the delusion, natural to any man who is engaged in a somewhat warm dispute, that the popular voice would back his views; but he should beware of attaching too much importance to the public opinion of Pukekohe. Doubtless be is, as he claims to be, actuated by the best of motives, but that should not blind his eyes to the fact that he is attempting to carry out an eminently unjust action. He is straining the law in order to grasp, prematurely, the power which a grossly unfair system of election places in the hands of the minority, and however good his character and his motives, he can scarcely expect his action in this instance to command general admiration.— am, etc., Hermit. May 8,1896.