OUR LONDON LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2232, 10 December 1896, Page 30

OUR LONDON LETTER.

(Fbom Oub Own CoBBESPONnENT.) London, October 31. THE CYANIDE 'PBOCESS.

With reference to the uee of the MacarthurForrest patents in New Zealand, Mr Alfred W. Berry, secretary to the New Zealand Exploration Company, writes as follows: — "Aa the telegram from our general manager in New Zealand, published yesterday, appears to, have been misunderstood, we think it well to explain the position of the matter, which is as follows t It may be remembered that as the result of the action by the Cassel Company v. Pielsticker, the Caßiel Company has seen fit to amend the olaim of the British patent by confining it to ♦ dilute' solutions containing cyanogen, &c. The owners of the New Zealand patent hav<s recently taken steps to have fclie claim of that patent similarly amended ; and this amendment having been opposed by certain parties, iincluding, we believe, the Government of New Zealand, the case has now besn tried, with the result that the application has been refused. Notice of appeal has been given against this decision by the owners of the patents. If the higher conrt confirm the -judgment, the Mrc-arthur-Forrest 'patent must, in view of the decisions of the British courts, practically become invalid. ' It is needless to say that this Trill be of great benefit to the mining interest of the oolony."

A "New Zealander" writes to several London financial papers on the sama aubject and aays : "lam in a position to state that ' want of utility ' is one of the contentions of the New Zealand opponents to the patent, one of the grounds being a* "Hows : — The claim is for the use of ' cyanide or a cyanide or other substance containing or yielding cyanogen.' It is contended that thi.«, read in conjunction with the text' of the specification, means, besides tbe USB of cyanogen, the use of cyanides, &s., only fco far as theie. substances 'yield cyanogen,' this latter compound '-ping considered and claimed as the effecth olvent. Now, cyano--gen will not diseolv. jj O ld at all. It will combine with gold to iotm cyanide of gold, which is insoluble in water ; so that the con--version into that substance of gold in ores is a perfectly useless combination. Cyanogen, under the influence of air and light, may be deoom-. j>osed into cyanide of ammonia, which, indeed, will dissolve gold by forming a soluble pompound with the latter; but then cyanide of ammonia is a cyanide acting as such, and sot as a substance yielding cyanogen. In short, it is contended by the eminent connBel, Mr Button, of Auckland, New Zealand, .who has charge of the case for the Government of New Zealand, that the patentees' claim for treating-gold ores with cyanogen, &c, is abso-lutely-useless. This points of view may paeaibly have been overlooked in regard to other Macarthur- Forrest patents, and, in view of the oppressive character of all these patents for the mining industries all over the world, I have to trespass npon your space thus at length." . - NEW -ZESXAND MINES IN LONDON. It Is interesting and somewhat gratifying from a New Zealand viewpoint to find a company, which was originally formed to deal exclusively with West Australian mines, should deliberately throw these up and turn its atten- ' tion to minei in New Zealand. This has been the experience of the Whttehead and Sultan Gold Mining Company; whose shareholders met at the Cannon Street Hotel last Tuesday. The Chairman, in the conree of a long ' speech, referred to the complete failure of the mines in Western Australia, which threw upon the directors the responsibility of making diligent search for a mining property of such ample development and promise as would enable them to confidently place it before the shareholders as a property worthy of their acquisition. No fewer than 10 Westralian mining properties, were offered and successively rejected, because they did not come up to the requirements of tbe ■board. An opportunity then occurred of deal* Ing with regard to a mine in New Zealand, and •fter very careful consideration the directors thought it was of such excellent promise that they unanimously recommended its acquisition bj the company. Yet ' another New Zealand mining company Is announced as about to appear. This one is situated in the South Island. It is to be brought out by the Collingwood Goldfields ■Company, wjth a capital of £150,000 in £1 shares, and a working capital of £50,000. Of the _ total amount £25,000 is now offered for" Subscription, and the vendors will accept shares only in full payment. The directors are Sir "Westby Perceval, Lord l)x?ugla« (of Hawick), ' Mr Ttoland 6 Hill, Mr George Beetham, and Air Arthur Fell . The company has been formed lo* purchase leases of 398 acres 1 rood 8 perches pi auriferous properties, situated in Colling■wood, Golden Bay, New Zealand, and known as ©olden Gaily, Quartz Ranges, and Appos Flat. And also to acquire all the water rights included in that tract of country embraced by 'Clark River, Slate River, and the Great Boulder Xake, covering an estimated area of over 30 Equare miles. After a good deal of delay and various viciasi- ___ tudes, the Kapai-yermont Mining Company has been successfully floated, and will come out ; - definitely on Monday next. Tbe new company lias a capital of £150,000, of which £25,000 is teserved for working capital. It takes over the Kapai- Vermont mice situated at Kuaotanu in the Hauraki district. No less than £40,000 in cash is to be paid to the vendors, the mine being " taken over as a going concern, which has long been dividend-paying, and is reasonably certain to continue so. The whole of the money has been raited privately by a syndicate. It is not often one comes across any new gold paining company whose sphere of operations is to .be in the South Island of New Zealand. There is one, however, in the course of Jnoubation, which, I believe, is to be hatched Immediately. It is the Alexandra United Gold Mines Company, which proposes to deal with the property of that name at Reef ton. I hear it favourably spoken o£ asjikely.-to ba floated Successfully. - - • • >• " - , ,At the beginning of last week a 'surprising '•purt occurred in Consolidated (toldflelds. , "While almoit every other New Zealand stock ( was .low iruprice, dull, and flat, Consolidated ' „ Qoldfields were an exception, though these, too, in the early part o£ the day were dnll, and relapied slightly. Later on, however, influential baying set in, and this stock strengthened remarkably. From a quotation of 2f transactions took place at an increase to 3£. Relapses «courred in each of the following j—Waihi, Waihi-Silverton, Waitekauri, East Hauraki, Kapanga, Kathleen Crown, United New Zealand. Aroha. Kathleen, Xokatea, New Zealand

Crowns, Achilles, Waitekauri Extended, Moanatairis, and Woodstock. Haurakiß are in good demand at » slight increase, and Royal Oaks came in for a fair share of inquiry. This upward and rapid advance which Consolidated Goldfields experienced was too good to last, for on the next day they stood at 3, minus their -jf. A decided improvement was evinced on Monday of the present week. Waihis strengthened, Tokateas were in good demand and rose, Kapangai and Haurakis were better, while Consolidated Goldficldt and United New Zealand were very strong, and Royal Oaks had an upward tendency ; and on Tuesday, though little business was doing, there was a downward movement in prices, and steadiness may be said to have been the order of the day. This came state prevailed on Wednesday, I Thursday, and Friday. ANGLO- COLONIAL NOTES. ! Unlimited derii ioa is still outponring on that 1 eccentricity of the New Zealand Parliament, the Juvenile Depravity Suppression Bill. It is characterised as " the latest instance of grandmotherly legislation." But one paper thinks that the Undesirable Immigrants Bill affords a still more glaring instance of tha faddy and selfish character of New Zealand legislation, and summarises the purport of the measure thus :— " It practically forbids-the admission to the colony of any person possessed of delicate lung#." After setting forth the operaiive provisions of the bill, it concludes : — " Tbe colony already possesses an act prohibiting all idiots from landing on its shores. It might go hard with New Zealanders if other nations legislated in a similarly hawh and restrictive! spirit." The proposal to adopt the referendum as a new system of government for New Zealand excites some amusement in England. An Anglo-Colonial paper remarks' tb ah "one does not hear bo much of the Australasian timber export trade as we did when Mr Freyberg was here from New Zealand." That is very true, and I do not see any prospect of more being heard on the subject unleis Mr Freyberg or some other equally enthusiastic and wellqualified expert should come Home again to take the matter in hand. Most peopie here i believe tbat New Zealand .has destroyed her timber so' recklessly that she now possesses very little more than would be needed for her own use during the next decade, and that by the end of that period the supply will be practically exhausted without its disappearance having been aided by any exportation at all. If this view be an accurate one, it might be ac well to correct it by means of tome authoritative statement on tbe Bubjecb. Owing to the sudden rise in the bank rate and the relative scaroity of money in the market New Zealand securities arc- again depressed. Threes, which recovered to par, are down again to 98^ ; 3£ per cents, after rising to 6, have fallen to 104. The experience of nearly all other colonial stocks has been similar, so that no reflection upon the credit of Net? Zealand is involved by the depression in prices, which is due solely to the increased value of money. The following are the latest quotations for New Zealand municipal and harbour stocks :—: — Auckland City sixes (1879), 130 to 133;' fives, 117' to 120'; Auckland Harbour sixes, 110 to 112 ; do fives (1936), 114 to 116 ; Cbriatohurch City sixes, 126 to 128; Lyttelton Hatbour sixes, 183 to 125 ; Danedin City sixes (1875), 130 to 133; do (1876), 118 to 120 ; Otago Harbour sixes (1877). 106 to 108/; do (1881), 116 to 118; do fives, 104 to 106.

Mr J. A. Randall, the Timara manager of the Christchurch Meat Company, is actively engaged in an investigation into the causes of the extensive damage which' has been sustained during the p<ist year or two, by frozen meat shipped from New Zealand. He is spending most of his time at the docks, inquiring minutely into all details, and I understand he is sanguine that on the completion of his researches he will be able to make some very valuable suggeitions, with the view to future preventive measures, by which a recurrence of the mischief may be avoided.

Notwithstanding the flourish of trumpets with which the company projected to work the Taranaki ironsand was introduced to the capitalistic world, I am inclined to think now that the *ff«ir in reality never had the slightest chance of successful flotation, I heard a good deal about it in the oity to-day, in quarters I have every reason to believe to be well informed. The fact seems to be that the scheme got into the hands of a very energetic and sanguine agent, who went into the affair with surprising vigour, and with a regardlessness of expense that was absolutely sublime. I am told that the bilk for printing and advertising alone mount up to something like £8000 or £10,000. Statements were so confidently made as to the certainty of the thing proving a success, and such skilful use was made of various engineering papers and other technical journals, the Agent-general's office (including tbe room out of which poor Mr Carrutbers was virtually turned to make room for Mr Smith's exhibition of-Taranaki curiosities), and of the Iron and Steel Institute, before which Mr Smith read his paper on " New Zealand Ironsand," that most people believed the long-talked of enterprise was at last about to become an accomplished fact. But- in the end, I believe, the total sum | that could be got to he subscribed or promised or guaranteed amounted to £1100, instead of £300,000, and so the projected company fell to the gronnd. •• It t really never had the ghost of a chance," said a city man to me to-day, " although I confess at one time it did look as if it were likely to come off. But the ! more the experts went into the matter the less they liked it. You see, what Mr Smith proposed was virtually, by mixing the sand with day into a compost, to convert it into a sort of iron ore for smelting. But, don't you see, the result of Jiheee operations was merely to l rovide as a material _ to work on, what we have already in unlimited quantities without the necessity of going through this preliminary operation of making the ore. When you have illimitable quantities of iron ore lying ready to hand in New Zealand, it must be obvious that no process can be profitable which involves preliminary construction of the ore itself before you begin to work at all. That seems to me to be a fatal weakness in the whole scheme at starting. And besides this," be continued, "how can it possibly pay to go in for iron works in New Zealand, where labour is so dear and where so many difficulties exist in the way of establishing such an industry, while iron can be' imported so cheaply from Great Britain p Iron is cheap in Great Britain and freights to New Zealand are low. It seems to me, therefore, that tor many years to come there is no -reasonable hope of running ironworks profitably in New Zealand. Of course that is only my opinion, and you musb take it,fop what it is . worth, but at least I have givpnyou uiy-reasons for thinking so."

Sir George Grey seems to keep in" fairly good health in Bpite of the 'wintry weather, and retains excellent spirits. Although he complains of increasing infirmities of age, above all the impairment of his eyesight, which naturally he greatly laments, as it deprives him of the pleasure of reading.

It will interest many people in New Zealand to learn that a third novel from Mm Baker.

("Alien") is now on the verge of completion, and is likely to be out in about; a fortnight. Mrs 'Baker has decided that the title is to ba " In Golden Shackles.'* In her own opinion it is tbe best thing she has done yet. Fortunately, she does not stand alone in that opinion. Her > publishers think very highly of the book. At the dinner of the Urban Literary Club lasts Friday evening I noticed no fewer than three New Zealanders present. Two, however, were members of the club, and it is not etiquette to mention their names. The third was a visitor—Mr James C. Thomson, of Dunedin. Mr Thomas Catling, editor of Lloyd's Weekly I News, was the chairman of the evening. Mr ! David Christie Murray was one of the principal contributors to the post-prandial entertainment, ' giving two excellent recitations. Mr E. F. Wright seems to be making steady, if somewhat slow, progress towards a full recoguition of the merits of bis phosphoric cure ! for tubercular disease.

Mr J. T. WrigLt, of Dunedin, who, with Mrs and Miss Wright, has been touring the mother country for some little time past, has taken a return passage to New Zealand, via Australia by the P. and O. s 8. Hima'aya next week.

Mr and Mrs J. M. Ritchie, of Dnnedin took their departure for Australia, en route for New Zealand, by the German-Lloyd steamer Darmstadt, haviag spent some months travelling about England and Scotland visiting friends,