THE WAIHI GOLD MINING COMPANY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15098, 22 March 1911, Page 6

THE WAIHI GOLD MINING COMPANY.

Tire English financial authority Th« Economist mentions as a consideration which the fall in the value of shares fathe Wai'ni Gold Mining Company'should drive home to English investors the point "that- whenever there is trouble at the mine the English shareholder.is the last person to hear of it." In view of some of the known facts this is assuredly a singular; comment.- The Economist seeks'to justify it with tho following reference , .—"ln this particular instance the first suspicion of trouble arose when people in New Zealand began to sell some time last autumn; No one knew the reason, but men with close connections on the other side certainly foresaw unfavourable developments ahead. To say this is not to blame any individual, for it is inevitable that rumours about a mine should be current locally beforo anyone hears then) thousands of miles, away." Necessarily there must be a certain degree of leakage of information from a mine in which several hundred people are employed, and to this cause may possibly .be attributed the beginning some months ago ; of the weakening in the values of the shares. The movement seemed unaccountable at the time, and officials connected with the mine afforded no encouragement t< any suggestion that untoward develop, mcnts were manifesting themselves. Indeed, even when they were in the possession of information that ' led tho directors- to conclude that a change of policy in tho mine was necessary, and that the output would have to be materially reduced, they professed to be puzzled by the continued fall in the shares. ,And at this time it was in. London that the shares were falling. The report by Mr R. E. Williams, the ■ mining engineer, which afforded the justification for the decline in the value of the shares, was dated the 14th December last and was not published until the 28th Januarymore than sis'weeks afterwards. As it was mailed Home it cannot have reached the London office until the third week in January. Yet, a fortnight after the date upon which it was prepared, the sales'on the London market showed ,i remarkable decline in the prices, and this at a time when the Stock Exchanges in New Zealand were closed for the holi- , days. And, while these sales were being recorded at Home, the attorney for the company in Auckland, who, we cannot help thinking, must have had knowledge of the contents of Mr WilUams's report, was blandly assuring anxious inquirers that he could offer no explanation of what he described as t2ie " staggering" drop in the London quotations. It is a grievance of the New Zealand share, holders that they were misled as to the condition of the mine at a time when, in the light of what subsequently transpired, the prices that were being obtained in England contained an implication that thoso who-were parting with shares had the benefit of "inside information." It is an additional grievance of theirs that to this day they have not been able to ascertain which among the shareholders it. -was who were fortunate enough to dispose of parcels at the time when the downward movement commenced. Unquestionably the shareholder in this country has not had all the advantages that The Economist suggests that the man on the spot .generally possesses. ,