A Mining Misadventure.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6027, 26 March 1891, Page 3

A Mining Misadventure.

Melbourne, Mar. 4. The latest Melbourne bubble has been th« rise and fall of the Otway Ranges Proprietary Mining Company; and share holders who a short time ago were buoy ant with hope are now regretting the money they have thrown away on' tht concern. The company was started some fifteen months ago to develop the sup posed deposit of coal at Colac. Mr Founds, who had recently arrived from Sydney, and who bore "a very high character as a mining expert, was sent up to examine the seam, and it was owing to his r«porb that the mine was rich in metal* that- the sudden rise of the company was daft. Experiments carried on in a small tray by Mr Pounds were said to havt ■hown the existence of. platinum in ver> large quantities, and the result was thai the public rushed the venture and thai the original LI shares, issued at 15s p»i.i up, rose almost at a bound to L 35 V bui owing to the contradictory nature of somtof the statements made, it was decided to ask that officers of the Mines Department •hould report upon it. Mr R. Murray, the Goternraenc geologist, again and again reported that there was no platinum there. Mr Murray went so far. as to warn the public (on his own responsibility) that ii was next to an impossibility that platinum could exist in such ores. Notwithstanding these official denials, Mr Pounds asserted that he had extracted it from stone from the mine, and alleged that the reason why the Government officials were unable to §ad it was that they were ignorant of th<--proper process of treatment. Mr Pound* continued his tests, and produced a certain quantity of bullion, which was alleged by him to contain the platinum. Statements of a very damaging character had been rumored about, and Mr Pounds ultimately issued a writ against Mr Ooimo Newbery, olaiming L 25.000 damages. In the meantime thia semi-official denial had its inevitable effect upon the public. A test, at which Mr R. Murray, Mi Danvers Power, and Mr Cosmo Newbery were present, uudoubtedly resulted in the production ot platinum. But as all the experts concerned adhered to their opinion that there- livas no platinum in the original ore, and that there was no platinum in the mine, the test only added to the growing dis belief in the- venture, and the shares fell with a rapidity rivalling their sensational rise. It was from this period that Mr.Pound's real connection with the company must be dated. It was evident that he explained to the directors that the smaller teats hitherto conducted had been unsatisfactory, and that the treatment of ore in large quantities was necessary to restore public confidence in the mine. Finally Mr Pounds contracted to treat the ore, on the agreement that should he produce 1 per cent of platimum from live fcong of ore, he was to receive LIOOO in O»sh, as well as a quarter of the interest, about 9000 shares, held by the original proprietors. As a further proof of his belief in the mine he bought 200 contributing shares at par, and this, added to a »urn of L 250 which he borrowed from the directors, is stated to have been the extent of his interest in the company. On the other hand, he erected at his own expense a complete set of furnaces in Market-street, South Meloourne, at a cost of LI7OO, and at once engaged with the utmost enthusiasm in the reduction of the ores. The process, so the directors say, was quite public. They went down to the works, assisted in trerj detail of the operation, and wore, like the directors, thoroughly convinced of the genuineness of the whole transaction. Affairs went well for a while. Then Mr Pounds fell sick from brain exhaustion, brought on by the severity of his work. On the advice of his doctors he went away to Albury, and here his condition became so serious that it was found necessary to trephine him. His recovery WAS slow, but a month or six weeks ago he returned to his premises, and from then until Wednesday last busied himself about his work with redoubled energy. He told the directors from time to time that the experiment was certain of success, that a large quantity of platinum had already been extracted, and that the bullion was safely banked. As it was known "that Mr Pounds kept his private account at the Commercial Bank, South Melbourne branch, it was taken for granted that the bullion had been placed in the same keeping. On Wednesday, February 11, about half- past five o'clock, Mr Pounds met Mr M'Meikan, MrUrquhaat, and other directors at Scott's' Hotel, and informed them that the experiment had been completed, and had turned out a brilliant success. "My business is all over now," he said, " I'm as free as a bird. You fellows are millionaires." He arranged before he left that the directors were to, meet at 1 o'clock the same evening at the works and receive the bullion, which he promised to have ready for them. They were, as might be expected, punctual to the appointment, taking with them Professor Jackson and Mr Field, an expert living at St. Kilda. The arrangement was that the two experts were to take a drill from each of the ingots for examination, and that the rest of the bullion was to be placed in a bank. But to their surprise Mr Pounds failed to appear. At midnight, after a fruitless search for hours, the directors decided to interview Mr Swift, the manager of the local branch of the Commercial Bank But Mr Swift, expressing every confidence in Mr Pound's integrity, positively refusnd to give any information about the affairs of a client. It would seem, however, that rightly or wrongly the directors construed Mr Swift's silence into a statement that the bullion was really lodged in the bank, and that they went away in the belief that Mr Pound's absence would be fully explained in the morning:. To make sure, however, they went at 2 a.m. to his private residence in Waterloo street, St. Kilda, and had an interview with Mrs Pounds,- who assured them that her husband had not returned home. The fact was, she explained, that for some weeks past his whole attention had been concentrated on the experiment, and he hud lonaetimes stopped away for days together, while he generally only paid hurried visits to his house for the purpose of changing his clothes. Mr Pounds was yesterday arrested at Cootamundra (N.S.W.) on a charge of stealing L 6,000 worth of platinum from the company.

, Thefollowing extraordinary price for tea -is 1 , recorded by the London Star of February 4 : — '• At the London Commercial Tea Sale Rooms in Mincing Lane a few days ago a consignment of tea from Ceylon, which experts in the tea trade describe as being the finest tea ever grown, was put Up for sale by auction. The bidding for this unique tea caused unusual excitement in the sale rooms, and after being carried on with unprecedented competition between the principal firms in the wholesale tea trade, the lot was at length knocked down at the amazing price of 87s per lb, a figure which has never been anything like approached in the annals of, the tea trade. Before the day was over the purchasers re-sold it at L 5 10g per lb, a price which represents a coat to the consumer of about Is 7d per cup. The tea is of the most extraordinary quality, the leaves being of the brightest golden color, in appearance almost resembling'small pieces of gold." 3VTr Adair informs us that the sale of Ceylon tea is largely increasing in Gisborne, but we do not think that our local merchants would find it a paying speculation to purchase a consignment at over L 4 per pound in the hope of retailing it at a -profit. Four shillings would be regarded as an putrageous price jn, this part of the world,.