Mining News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 992, 6 March 1891, Page 26

Mining News.

The Blue Spur Company, over which the late Mr J. C. Brown came to so much grief, appears to have taken a new departure. After a good deal of negotiation, the Chairman of the Company, Sir Walter Buller, succeeded in December last in making satisfactory arrangements with all the creditors and placing the Company’s affairs on an entirely new footing. Having, first of all, raised the necessary funds by the issuq in London of preference shares, bearing 8 per cent, interest, he bought out the Blue Duck and Morrison and Co. claimants, thereby extinguishing these mortgages, and then consolidated the securities by giving the Colonial Bank of New Zealand and the Bank of New Zealand a joint mortgage over all the Company’s claims for securing the repayment of their respective debts, pari "passu, amounting in the aggregate to eighteen thousand pounds, a period of nine years being allowed for extinction of the debt by the operation of a sinking fund. All other creditors of this Company were induced to accept a settlement of their claims in preference shares. The immediate effect of this arrangement was to give the General Manager of the Company a free hand over all the claims and the undisputed control of over a hundred miles of waterraces. This change in the position of affairs was marked by an immediate increase in the yield of gold, which has continued to improve, the yield for the month of February being 267 ounces, representing a value of about LIOOO. The cost of management has been reduced to a minimum, the Directors have not taken their fees for more than two years, and the incomings over and above the sinking fund will be applied to the more rapid extinction of the debt. Prominent men like Sir Robert Herbert and the Hon R. H. Meade, of the Colonial Office, have subscribed liberally for preference shares, and altogether the future outlook is very hopeful.

The Government on Monday agreed, on the motion of the Minister of Mines, that want of preparation is fatal to the representation of the Colony at the Mining Exhibition, to be held at the Imperial Institute. It resolved also that as Parliament has' voted no moneys, it is ont of the power of the Government to offer aid to tho Imperial Institute.