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egulations. Prejudice will still find its outlet, and the same admixture of motives will'still sway the judgments of the weaker- minded arbiters of the Middle Kingdom.
THE
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
carat stone.
for
[January 23, 1905. twenty pagodas "one manjalin dispensing altogether with a manager; to (two carats); and "400 Madras pagodas" leave Mr. VERSCHOYLE to take charge and as the price of an eight manjali," or do all the assaying, and to begin afresh in sixteen
No mention is another spot which the obliging MIAU had made of Kimberley, whose gemmy trea-pointed out. Mr. DAWSON, although thus DIAMOND DISCOVERIES IN sues were not discovered until 1867, the anticipating that his services were to be great rush following three years later discarded, and recognising that his present BRITISH NORTH BORNEO.
The lew hundreds composing the white report would be "most unpalatable," fell population of British North Borneo may in with the Shanghai spirit to the extent of not, RS a consequence of this discovery, wishing the Directors "the compliments of The Directors, considering rise to the twenty-nine thousand of the the Season." South African diamond city, but if the two that they already owed a thousand dollars blue clays be found equally rich, the B N.B. or so more than they could pay, believing Company will have hard work to keep that Mr. Dawson had now lost all faith in prospectors away. That the climate is the mine, and deciding that liquidation was particularly pleasant for the tropics," is a the next step to take, relieved Mr. DAWSON factor that should add to the attractive from further duty, and despatched the power of this now more than ever fascina-optimistic Mr. DUFF to take charge. The ting country.
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WEIHAIWEI GOLD MINES.
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shareholders would not hear of this. They demanded a reconstruction, with fresh directors, and the re-instatement of Mr. DAWSON. They would not believe that a (Daily Press, 20th January.)
company owning a real gold mine could be Some people, of griffinesquestandig, might insolvent, and they appointed a sub-com. be tempted to entertain the belief that the mittee to examine the books. At this stage, men of Shanghai are incapable of taking the announcement was made that the secre- things seriously. It is not, however, levity; ary had been too busy to bring the books but rather a MARK TAPLEY cheerfulness of up to date. This would have made some demeanour under all circumstances. Early assemblies of shareholders angry, but not last year there was a crowded "in lignation so a Shanghai gathering. Here our con- meeting" of electors, who had met to de- temporary's reporter had to write, in the nounce, by vote and speech, the leaning of customary Brackets, the word "haughter." were warned that reconstruction the Electrical Department of the Municipal They
would take at least six weeks, and involve Council toward municipal trading.
the payment in Hongkong of fees amount. light-hearted audience it woull have been
Maskee! difficult to select, and yet they did the ing to one thousand tac's.
What about the concentrates in band? business just as determinedly as, say, an
The CHAIRMAN anti-war or anti-opium meeting would have was, in effect, the rtrt. done vehemently
said about £700 worth, but plaintively or gubriously. numerous other instanes that could bead/ed "but if we get half of that we are
lucky. We have to put it in bags." seems to convey the impression that the company was so impoverished that it could not afford bags in which to pack its hullion. that the anxious It is again recorded
(Daily Press, 19th January.) To Borneo, British North Pornes, which produces, according to the Directory and Chronicle," elephants, rhinoceros, deer of three kinds, wild cattle, pigs, bears, and pythons," the minds of many readers will this morning doubtless turn with much interest, when they read on the next page the story of the discovery of diamond clay in that territory. As the Home paper from which we quote has stated, the story unfolded before the proprietors of the Chartered Company reads like a page from STEVENSON'S treasure-hunting romance. Even the sketch map, showing the locality of the treasure, was forthcoming in some papers. We need not repeat the story, so graphically told in the extract referred to ; but the intimate trade relations subsisting between British North Borneo and this Colony, as well as with China, compel us to regard the new announcement with more than a mild interest. At present the Com- pany is doing very well out of timber, Tobacco, sago, rice, gums, gutta-percha, coe-nuts, rattan, and all varieties of jungle produce. What it may do as a seller of diamonds, if the performance should equal the promise of the blue clay now being test, it is hard to put mental limits to It should pale to insignificance the beggarly $1,096,000 which the Company expects to make this year. Naturally, these hard-adduged from this Paris of the Orient, the healed men of business poo-poohed the most recent and the most striking is un- story of the prospector at first, and did not doubtedly that afforded by the shareholders think it worth while mentioning to the of the Weihaiwei Gold Mining Co. Ld., When who met on the 11th instant to consider the previous meeting of shareholders, their own agent re-d scovered the outcrop | financial position of their company. Inspired of blue clay, somewhere up the Lalmk river, by the optimism of a M. Dure, who in and sent samples; when a London expert certified that those samples were "true blue," like the Kimberley basal clay, they could no longer refrain from reporting what was bound to raise lively hopes. A sensation of sorts was the immediate result. The papers at flome last month were full of it, and share buyers and adventurers alike fixed their attention on the land that sends the Chinese Borneo has ports most of their timber.
Cin
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A more
Of
turn was credulous of the stories of one
MIAU, a native," these hard-headed gentle meu of commerce subscribed for modern machinery to delve in abandoned native workings at Weihaiwei for the yellow inetal that, like the historical Earl of WARWICK, makes sovereigns. Thirty thousand shares of twenty dollars were paid up, and their last quotation was 87 sples; 864 buyers," the broker adding this comment:-Through faults of management and unsatisfactory reports, shares fell during the week to as low as $4 and close at about $63. The financial position of this company seems in a very parlous condition." At the meeting just mentioned, ironical cheers greeted the first announcement of the Chairman, Mr. MARCUS WOLFF, that the company was "practically insolvent," Oaly a few weeks before this, the same shareholders had enthusiastically subscribed debentures to drag this practically insolvent company out of a tight place; and now, finding that the additional sacrifice had failed to placate the gods of Luck, they indulged in cheerful
There was, to all irony.
appearances, enough to make them gloomy, but the very long report of the meeting, spread over two issues of our contemporary, is punctuated laughter and here and there with "applause."
wrote,
This
shareholders laughed. Perhaps they had in mind the man of whom BARRY PAIN who would be ย aiser, anl that he had already who announced provided himself with a hole in which to Store his hoard. The shareholders deputed one of their number to visit the mines and
make a report; and for the rest, contented themselves with the putting in of a requisi- tion for another meeting to consider recon- struction. Seriously, the experiences of these cheerful people go to show how unwise it is to speculate in Chinese gold mines. We do not believe that at Weihaiwei or a petit anywhere near it is there even
Gold there undoubtedly was Klondyke. there, ouce, but the Chinese themselves long ago got all that was worth taking With their primitive methods, the away. stuff might even bẻ “ paying dirt" still; but that the precious ore exists in quantity and quality sufficient to return a fair in- terest on capital invested in modern plant we shall continue to disbelieve, in face of all reports to the contrary that Mr. DUFF may send. As the title to the property is good, and England is more likely now to develop Weihaiwei than to abandon it, those who hold or buy the sadly depreciated stock of the Company, and can afford to wait a bit, may ultimately be rewarded; but further and final disaster only can attend persistence in developing the property as a gold mine.
always been known as a diamond-producing country, but, as in Ilindustan, the supply has for long been believed to be almost exhausted. The once famous name Gol- conda, though preserved as a sort of simile, or literary reference, now fails to convey any such opulent significance as the modern public attaches to Kimberley, Klondyke, and so on. A brochure on diamonds, published exactly fifty years ago, mentions that the island of Borneo is the only other eastern locality which
boast of its (diamond) production. The diamond oc- curs at Pontiana, in that islaud, directly under the line, and at Benjarmassin, ahout three degrees south of the equator. Here it is said to be of a quality superior to that of the gems found in the other Iudian localities; and to be distinguished in con- sequence by the name of Landak, the place
Mr. T. LAUNCELOT DAWSON. where they are found. Here also the dia. mond occurs in alluvial soil, accompanied the manager, having previously bombarded them with hopeful reports, now explained with gold. One diamond of 367 carats was
The Messrs. Robert Stephenson and Co. found there upwards of a century ago." that the ludes so far examined, and giving The clay under which they were then found excellent assays, had developed the bad (Limited), of the Springfield Locomotive Works, against a wall, or of Darlington, bave been awarded, in face of was described as "black," not blue. Voys Y habit of "faulting
severe competition from British and Continental in his Asiatic Researches mentions sandstone diving down, suddenly into the un-get-at-builders, an order for ten large four-wheeled
locomotives, the predominant strata for able bowels of the earth. His most hope- coupled passenger brescia 18 Asiatic diamonds. It is quaint to read now ful opinion was that the mills might just wheeled leading bogie and six-wheeled tenders, the Madras prices for Brahma diamonds, opay expenses for three months more, by for the Shanghai-Nanking Railway.
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