“WILD-CAT” COMPANIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19598, 10 June 1935, Page 4

“WILD-CAT” COMPANIES.

PROMOTION IN CHRISTCHURCH. A FRUITFUL GROUND. “It used to be a saying in Christr •church that there is a new crop of fools born in Hereford Street every five minutes, and from my experience of the number of w'ild-cat schemes which have been floated on Hereford Street I am inclined to subscribe to that belief,” Mr 'J. Morrison, Assistant 'Commissioner of Stamp Duties, said in an address at Christchurch, to the Institute of Public Administration.

Mr Morrison said that there wero many goldmining propositions ‘being put before the public to-day, a great number of which would never show any.profit except to the promoters. “A man who puts money into one of these propositions should recognise it as a gamble, and if he loses his money he should lake it in the same way as if he had made an investment on the totalisator,” he said.

■Air Morrison gave instances from his own experiences of the methods ol’ share salesmen for goldmining companies, who, he said, had shown him photographs of alleged gold-bearing' land v hich, for all lie knew, might have been taken at Sumner. Bottles of gold were shown to people, well “salted,” and it was stated that the contents had come from Cromwell. Of course some people bought the shares with the Intention of selling at a- profit to any person whom they could persuade to buy, and if they knew the market well they could probably make money out of such transactions. But it was to be remembered that everyone could be a seller. It usually happened that a few persons collaborated to sell at 'the right time.