A Quiil for Everyone.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 860, 22 June 1895, Page 7

A Quiil for Everyone.

The mining boom is still flourishing, and there seems to be every likelihood at the time of writing that it will be as strong and healthy three months hence as it is today. Wiseacres shake their heads, and predict that we will see the end of it in a week. They have experienced this sort of thing before, they say, and it ended in a collapse, but they forget that there was no cyanide process in use then, and this makes all the difference. The greatest element of danger lies in the new companies that are being floated in such numbers and with such naste, to work ground on the Coromandel Peninsula. There is nothing about the Coromandel holdings in particular that we did not know of before, and some of those who are investing so largely in this scrip are bonnd to be disappointed.

There is one feature about the mines recently placed upon the market that argues well for at least some degree of permanency. All, or nearly all, of the money subscribed iB being set apart to work the mine. This means, in almost every instance, that the company commences operations with close npon i'l,ooo in cash to prospect for a lode or reef, if none is already in hand. If there is nothing in sight when the £1,000 is gone, the shareholders will be able to consider their position.

This i 3 an improvement on the old condition of things, under which shareholders were bled by constant calls from the very commencement of operations. It at least affords a guarantee that work will be done upon all the holdings which are being so grudently managed. So far as Upper Thames mines go, they offer the best prospect to investors, because this country has not been explored yet, and no one can tell what it is capable of. The mines already taken over by English companies are proving their value and permanency as each successive week passes by, and the good offer made for the Talisman shows the confidence of English investors in the mines of the Upper Thames. Hence, it is natural that there should be a strong partiality locally for a district that has produced few; if any, duffers amongst the claims taken up.

There is.no lack of money for the boom. It was coming in from the South literally in bushels during the week, and we hear on good authority that large sums of money have come across from Sydney and Melbourne during the week for investment. There is ' also a great deal of local money invested. Profits? Well, yes. rather. It seems just now that one cannot go wrong in buying scrip. Anything almost will sell again at a profit. But this cannot continue, and investors should for their own security see that they do not put their money into anything that is not permanent. Smaller profits and greater safety should be the policy guiding all investments just now.

We have Beveral letters from wellinformed correspondents urging us to protest against the number of claims being floated into companies. But this is more a matter for the brokers. As things are going now, they are only ruining their own business. Seventy applications were in this week for new holdings, and almost every one of these will be floated into a company. Hence, scrip will be as cheap and plentiful as dirt, and legitimate investment will be lessened, if not wholly killed. It is a great mistake to overdo the thing. If the mines already floated are conscientiously worked, we have a big era of mining prosperity before us ; but if new claims are to oe floated every day, the investing public will be surfeited with worthless scrip, and the boom will come to an untimely end. . But it is for the brokers to interfere . Theirs will be largely the loss if a collapse comes, and by lending their countenance to ' wild cat ' notation schemes they are heavily discounting their own future.

The daily papers inform us that the Permanent Force, at present in the Urewera Country, are engaged on road-making. Might we be allowed to add 'and football?'

Two distinct Chinamen have taken a hand in the grocery business in Auckland. This is a new element in the keen cutting competition that has prevailed in the trade for some time past. But those Chinamen have a lively prospect before them. It is said of one or two of the grocers in Auckland that they live on the smell of an oiled rag, and it is notorious that certain of them can thrive on profits that even a Chinaman would turn up his nose at. "We pity those Chinamen.

There has been a rare old rumpus in one of the largest of the "Union Steamship Company's vessels. Two stewardesses have been summarily dismissed, and two male officers transferred into other vessels. And now that the higher officials of the company have time to reflect upon their ' example,' it may happen to suggest itself to them that the two girls who have been so cavalierly dealt with may happen to have a good action for damages against the company, and more especially so seeing that there is reason for believing that no adequate ground has been shown for their dismissal.

' Where are we all going to ?' Saloon fares from Auckland to Sydney in the Union Company's fine steamer Mararoa are now advertised at fifteen shillings. This is about cheap Chinese dining-room price for board and lodging, with the travelling thrown in free as a Bonus. It's cheaper than staying ashore. But as things are going now, there is no certainty that free passages will not be offered to an amused and appreciative public shortly. As it is, you can have a steerf ge passage to Sydney for 7/6

Colonel Hume's resignation of his position of Under- Secretary for Defence has given unmixed satisfaction to the Volunteers and Permanent "Force throughout the Colony. Now, if he would also resign his control of the Police Force he would be doing a great service to the country and a greater service to the _police, and there would be nothing whatever to grumble at. We shall never have the best results from the police so long as the force is controlled by a military man instead of a policeman. Such a state of things is too anomalous.

The prosecutions under the Shop Hoars Act do not appear to have ended, even yet.. Perhaps the most important visitor to Rushbrook's on the occasion of the ' sale . rush ' last Saturday afternoon was Inspector Ferguson, who, notebook in hand, took down the names of the assistants with a view to further proceedings. And yet, Mr Rushbrook has been one ox the staunchest and most consistent supporters of the Saturday half-holiday, and the best of good feeling exists between himself and his hands. But there are few drapers who would not face all the terrors of a prosecution for an afternoon's ' rush ' such as Mr Rushbrook had last Saturday. • * * The friends of a well r known Queenstreet tradesman are telling a good story at his expense. He is the possessor of a horse, and one of his fancies is that this horse is particularly fast. Indeed, he has been heard to say that with a fair degree of training the occupant of his stable might some day be an Auckland Cup winner. But recently he decided to sell his horse, and the first probable buyer who offered was a local undertaker. A trial was stipulated for, and conceded, and after the lapse of three days the undertaker returned the horse. He was very sorry, but the horse was too siow — yes, too slow for a funeral. And now the friends of the tradesman have got hold of the story, and are never tired of asking about the condition of that possible winner of the Auckland Cup. * # * The mantle of the extinguished John Washington Irving appears to have descended upon our misguided but still esteemed friend ' Mercutio,' of the Herald. Now, who would ever have suspected it ? But listen and blush. The italics in ' Mercutio ' marks where the writer has striven to improve upon a choice paragraph in Crockett's ' Raiders ' : — From ' Mercutio ' in the Herald : — She should talk in that fashion at some of the Women's Leagues which are now as plentiful as mushrooms, and not to ' Mercutio ' Perhaps the sisters would not suffer the word of exhortation, and another style of treatment might be necessary, for which another correspondent of the From Crockitt's male persuasion gives * Eaiders ' :— the recipe. He says:— My father had a My father had a great great respect for respect for Scripture, Scripture, and be had and he had Scrip.ture Scripture warrant for warrant for this: this: ' Mind ye, Pait- • Mind you, laddie,' he rick,' he used to say, would say, 'that the 'that the good Book Great Book says, "A says "A soft answer soft answer turneth turneth away wrath." away wrath." Now, ' Now, keep your temkeep your temper, lad- per, laddie. Never die, when your aunts quarrel wi' an angry arrive. Never quarrel person, especially a with aii angry person, woman. Mind ye, a especially a woman, soft answer's aye best. Mind ye, a soft an- It's commanded, and swer's aye best, and forbye it makes them forbye it makes them far madder than onyfar madder than any- thing else ye could thing else ye can say.' say.' Ahem ! It looks as if somebody else with a good memory had forgotten the quotation marks. Eh, ' Mercutio ' ? One thing that the shareholders in goldmining companies have good reason to grumble about is that when an offer is made for a mine by foreign speculators, the terms of the offer are kept as a close secret. This might be a very prudent course, if it were not for the fact that the directors and their friends know whether they ought to sell or buy, and they do sell or buy according to the market rate of the scrip and the price offered for the mine. On the other hand, shareholders are in the dark, and are completely at the mercy of the directors. There was much complaint at the withholding of this information in the Talisman. Shareholders knew nothing — the directors everything. A meeting is convened, and the shareholders will be asked to pass cnt-and-dried resolutions accepting cash and shares in lieu of their shares. But, meanwhile, the directors know what the offer is worth, and they and their friends are free to buy if the market price of the shares is lower than each shareholder will get for his scrip when the purchase is completed. • • • How nice to be a solicitor to the New Zealand Government. As, for example, the case of James Whitelaw, who got four weeks in gaol for not keeping proper books. After Whitelaw filed, the legal business connected with the realising of the estate was handed over to Tole and McAllister as solicitors to the Official Assignee. First, Mr McAllister got some nice pickings out of the estate, by suing the creditors, and all that sort of thing, and then the other partner, Mr Tole, cut in, and in his capacity of Crown Prosecutor brought Whitelaw before the Court for not keeping proper books. Band of legal see-saw arrangement. First. McAllister and then Tole, and finally Tole and McAllister.

. The Auckland Gas Company has reduced the price of gas to five shillings per thousand feet. So far so good. Now let us hope that there will be a corresponding reduction in the amount of the gas accounts. ** * -

An erstwhile Wellington athlete, rowing man, frequenter of one of the ' toney ' clubs, and Civil Servant, who disappeared from the city under a cloud of social scandal some little time ago, is now reported to be at work on one of the Government co-opera-tivp contracts, utterly ' down on his luck.'

This does not refer to Dr Laishley. It does bear a pointed allusion to somebody in Sydney, or Melbourne, or Timbnctoo, or somewhere, and we borrow it from a contemporary in the full and certain belief that the doctor won't take it to himself : — '.He dreamed the Queen had dubbed him knight, And then awoke, and swore, To find the vision flee from sight — A knightmare, nothing more.'

The four o'clock share list had just been posted at the Exchange one day this week, when two acquaintances approached and greeted each other ' ' What is the matter, Jones ? You don't look satisfied,' said one. ' No, I should think not,' replied the other. ' I have only made a hundred per cent . on my money to-day.' x es, he must cave been greedy, and yet a hundred per cent, has been by no means a large profit lately. * * * During the hearing of the Switchback trial in Christchurch, evidence was being led to prove that the cars were overi crowded, ana it was stated* that in some instances young women had to sit on the knees of their young men. His Honor : ' But that is one of the features of the Switchback, is it not ?' The plaintiff's counsel (Mr Stringer): 'I was not aware of it. your Honor ; but I am quite prepared to accept your Honor's experience in the matter.' His Honor : ' On, dear no ; I don't mean that at all !' But the Court laughed, nevertheless.