STOCK AND SHARE SHARKS

NZ Truth, Issue 123, 26 October 1907, Page 5

STOCK AND SHARE SHARKS

GREEDY RAPACIOUS RASCALS. The Grab-alls of the Auckland Exchange. It isn't necessary to go out of God's own .country to run foul of a monopoly or a Trust. The Auckland Stock Exchange, which rigs the market and controls the , destinies of, the northern goldfields, is a grasping collection of human vultures, whose existence is a menace to the mining industry, and special legislation is required to prevent the legal robbery committed by these shark-like brokers, who would be more usefully employed driving a "cab or pushing, a trolley on one of the unprospected mining properties, the shares of which are dangled before the eyes of a gullible public. According to • member Poland, of Ohinemuri, the legitimate miner and prospector are penalised and victimised by the band of non-producers and hangers-on who yell the ;- quotations m the Queenstreet Exchange with the abandon, and with as much honesty, as a rau-cous-voiced penciller on an unregistered racecourse. At anyrate, they did so yell during the northern mining boom, but now they have their touts out, like the bookmaker, and SOLICIT COIN FROM THE CREDULOUS to invest m some worthless property, or some property that has .just sufficient gold m it to filch the cash of the shareholders by means of "calls." . If a prospector strikes gold after working for months on his ciaim (backed, "perhaps, by the unhappy storekeeper), he has to obtain the permission of the Auckland Stock Exchange before the property will be ■quoted on the Dominion market. Stalwart Poland gave an instance of a K&rang-ahake miner who struck a payable reef, but failed to take the Exchange cormorants into his calcu-. lations. They absolutely refused to quote the property. Money is required for development work, but if the shares are not m the authorised list m the Exchange, the miner might just as well close down his mine. The owner approached the Exchange and asked for an explanation, and was informed that m the opinion of that despotic Trust, th'e vendor was getting too much. In other words, the rapacious brokers wanted their cut m. Rather than leave a rich property undeveloped the vendor handed back £1000 of the new company's purchase money, but the beastly Exchange held out for another twelve months before it was pleased to put the name of the claim on the quotation list. Poland quoted another case of R. B. Thompson, promoter of the W'hangaroa Copper Mining Company, at Whangarei. Prospectuses were issued and everything arranged for successful flotation, but the unspeakable Exchange refused to quote the shares because they reckoned Thompson was making too much out of it. Miners put m a life-time full of privation, work early and late, and endanger their lives, and when they do strike something payable they are compelled TO "STAND AND DELIVER !j' by scrip manipulating brigands who sit comfortably m the cushioned arm-chairs m the city. It is said the Exchange doesn't like new properties, as there is only a limited amount of capital m Auckland, and a fresh claim is apt to disturb the daily juggle with the shares of. the older-es-tablished properties. As remarked by Poland, the Government provides regulations which the miner has to observe m the working of his property, it furnishes a Warden's Court and a Warden to hear his cases, it offers facilities for the registration of the claim, it appoints inspectors to see that the regulations are carried out, it maintains schools of mines for the benefit of the mining industry ; but there is no law to prevent the legalised robbery practised on the miner by the Auckland Stock Exchange. Poland wants special legislation to prevent this form of rapacity, and "Truth" joins with him m urging upon the Government, with unusual vehemence, the necessity for such an enactment.