PROPHETS OF EVIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 20

PROPHETS OF EVIL.

TO THK EDITOR. Sir,—l also am a recent visitor to the Molyneux River, and, as far as my experience goes, any man going through the country simply looking at the claims cannot tell a good one fiom a bad one, except that you can tell a gorge from a flat. But the principal value in travelling is to get reliable information from trustworthy men, and I found plenty of men who gave honest opinions, and have every confidence in the dredging industry themselves; in fact, that is the noticeable feature of the business—the more men know of it the more faith they have iit it,—for wherever I went everyone I spoke to had unbounded confidence in it, even valuing their claims above Dunedin market prices. I was pointed out plenty of claims that would pay for a certainty from 20 to 30 per cent, on present values for as many years to come; l,i;t the majority of investors are not satisfied with 20, or even 50, per cent., and that's where <he trouble begins.—l am, etc., Another, Country Visitob. TO TIIE EDITOE. Sir,—ln your Monday's issue a correspondent writes. " I could name a few of the ventures lately launched on the market, both on the Molyneux and oa the other fields, which have not the ghost of a chance of success; but, with your I permission, will probably say somu>hiri£ of these later on." Now, in all honour, your correspondent ought not to defer his remaiks till " later on," but should let us have them at once. Some months ago your Upper Molyneux correspondent wrote in p. similar strain: " Thank goodness I hpve had no haiid m advising the public to put their money into claims on which dredges, owing to running drift, will not be able to work fo^ more than four or five months out of the year. There are some of the gorge claims that have good dredging ground, but as for others, the least said about them the better." Now, with this lost expression I do not agree at all, and the writer had nothing to " thank goodness " for. Letters of this sort do far more harm than that of a " Recent Country Visitor," whose statements were too sweeping and supeificial to have more than a passing effect; while the correspondents I have quoted profess to have more accurate knowledge, and altogether unsettle one's confidence. When the failures occur these men will come forward and say, " There! Didn't I warn you; didn't I tell you to beware " ? And the proper answer will be: " No, you .didn't. You are a mischievous humbug; you frightened some people into dropping things that were good, and left others holding on to things that were bad. If you know, as you pretend, that some of the claims are hopeless, you ought not to wait until confiding people who are living' at great distances and have not the means of personal investigation, have bought in at large premiums, and then crow over their misery. You should specify the claims you mean, and those who are concerned in keening them aflopt can then defend them. The public will thus be able to use their own judgment. It is a mean thing to watch people rushing into pitfalls when yoxi might help to save them. No doubt in such a time of excited speculation queer vagaries will occur. About eight months ago a stretch of the Molyneux was offered to the public under the name of the " Sunlight Extended," and failed to float. About four months later it was offered under the new name of " Curries Flat," and " Civis" helped to write it down, so that it failed a second time. Now, it has been offered as the " British Lion," and patriotic feeling rose at once to the title and gobbled it down. When it was Curries Flat I applied for some shares in it. Have I been saved from a good thing or a bad thing.—l am, etc., Another Investor.