The Thames Star. Ressurrexi. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1898. THAMES HAURAKI GOLDFIELDS, LIMITED.

Thames Star, Volume XXX, Issue 9110, 2 July 1898, Page 2

The Thames Star. Ressurrexi. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1898. THAMES HAURAKI GOLDFIELDS, LIMITED.

The following is the report of the directors of the above company :— " The directors beg to submit the audited accounts from the date of the registration of the company until the 28th of February, 1898, the New Zealand accounts being made up to 20th January, 1898. The properties whi«h were acquired were the Queen of Beauty, containing 47 acres; the Deep Sinker, 93 acres; and the Deep Level Consolidated, 110 acres. The working capital provided was £50,000, and the New Zealand Government have voted a subsidy of £25,000, of which the company has so far received £23,864. The properties were in due course transferred to the company, and tenders were invited for the powerful pumping and hoisting machinery for the Queen of Beauty mine, capable of working to a depth of 2000 ft, in accordance with the stipulations of the New Zealand Government. The tender of the Sandycroft Company Hawarden, Cheshire, was accepted. On the Queen of Beauty mine the original shaft has been much enlarged and timbered down to the water level (427 ft), and the necessary excavations and foundation for the erection of the pumping and hoisting machinery have been completed. The principal item of expenditure has been in connection with the purchase, shipment and erection of the machinery for the " Queen of Beauty " mine. The stipulations of the New Zealand Government have been complied with, but the plant haß been extremely costly. The company has had to contend with considerable difficulties, owing, in the first instance, to modifications of the New Zealand Government's original specification, end, secondly, to thei delay of the contractors in shipping the ! machinery. The directors greatly regret the delay which has occurred, and ! although the plant is of a magnitude unptfraUed in the history of exportation of mining machinery and the work is of the highest quality, thejifeel that the Company is entitled to relief for the delays, and this question, which is now the subject of negotiations, will shortly have to be settled. The greater portion of the machinery has been shipped and placed in position, and the last of the machinery necessary for starting the pumps was shipped the middle of this month. The directors trust that by September, ore will be mined from the "Queen of Beauty " mine, from which property such large returns were made before the water flooded the workings. Owing to the delay and the extra expense entailed by the conditions imposed by the New Zealand Government in the machinery contract, the funds of the Company are exhausted. Steps have been taken by the company's agents in New Zealand to obtain from the Government a fur* thfcr subsidy, and the directors are sanguine this may ultimately be sanctioned. In the meantime, however, more capital is absolutely neces. sary to carry on the works, and an issue of debentures has suggested itself to the directors as* the best means of securing the same. Since coming to this conclusion, however, the directors have received from the London and Globe Finance Corporation, Limited, a proposal for amalgamation with the Standard Exploration Company, Limited. Should the proposal, when the full terms are known, appear to the directors to be favorable they will lay the same before | the shareholders, so that they may have time to consider it before the general meeting, which will be called about the end of May, when one of the directors, who has visited the property and is now on his way home, will have returned." The report is signed Donoughmore, Chairman; H. P. Clinton, Director; 8. G. Bruff, Secretary. Attached to it is a statement of accounts and also Mr T. A. Dunlop's report on the properties, detailing the various works that have been carried out.