FINANCIAL CRAZE IN LONDON.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2887, 29 October 1895, Page 3

FINANCIAL CRAZE IN LONDON.

A cable to the New York Sun from London, dated September 7, says the financial madness which began to spread among the English public last spring has reached what is probably its culminating stage. Never during the present generation has there been such an amazing display of insane folly and recklessness in speculation as there is now being witnessed. The South Africa and West Australian mining craze has grown until hundreds of millions of pounds have been poured into all manner of enterprises by the general public. Most of the schemes are advanced by Barney Barnat, whose fame is now worldwide. He has been so successful that his name is sufficient to draw millions from the pockets of the gain-thirsting public without other guarantee. The sum which this man has been able to stow into the treasuries of his enterprises in the form of popular subscriptions has now amounted to the amazing total of 30 millions. His last coup is the most astonishing, possibly in financial history. He put on the market last Monday, September 2, the stock of the Barnat Banking, Mining and Estate Corporation, Limited. No prospectus was issued, nor any statement of constitution, or the objects or management of the scheme. One or two preliminary deals were made with a sjndicate whose members cleared more than £2,000.000 in a single day by unloading on the public. The demand for the shares of this brand when offered for sale on the Stock Exchange on Monday seemed limitless. One pound shares were sold in immense quantities before business closed at £4 over. This is equivalent to a capitalisation of more than £15,000,000 on an undefined financial proposition which has hardly began business. Men of finance who are not affected by this strange madness are wondering how soon the crash will come. Kaffir speculation has been greatly stimulated by French and German support, and it has been well known that during the past few days strong efforts are being made to prolong it by carrying the infection to American ports. Everybody whose opinion is worth anything believes that the whole mining market is too heavy. Those who are induced to invest at the present inflated prices will hardly deserve much sympathy if they come to grief.