lucky shareholders rich beyond tho dreams of avarice. But the power of absorption of the colonial share market was quite unequal to the embarras de richesse so suddenly sprung upon the speculative section of the community. Just at this juncture tbe Transvaal mines, into which English investors had been pouring money with a lavish hand, bad a bad " slump," and atten tion was turned to New Zealand, with the result that British capitalists began to buy " options " in our sup posed good things. This was the signal for wholesale mine promotion in Auckland and the rapidity with which the market was supplied with new ventures showed that our mining speculators were not slow to take full advantage of the " boom." The way some of these ventures have boomed aud foisted off on a too credulous public would be highly amusing if it were not for tbe fact that the vaunted prospect of a large number of these " wildcat" mining compa nies are utterly unreliable, and will assuredly fail of accomplishment and that those who are left to " nurse the I baby " will have cause ere long to re gret their credulity. People who know nothing of gold • mining and have nothing to lose have promoted dozens of theae delusive affairs and have palmed off thousands of shares in them on others who, in the hope of making their fortunes by a lucky investment, are more likely to lose their slender savings and be rudely awakened to the folly they have been led into by the glib tongues ot a set of needy, greedy " Affable Hawkes," who are living like millionaires for a season on their dupes. Of course their are legitimate mining ventures being constantly promoted, but it is equally true that the majority of the companies which havo been lately placed on the market and are still being promoted will never pay the cost o£ their registration^ and that those who hold their shares will be left lamentirg. Every acre of the auriferous area in the North has been prospected keenly during the last year, and it goes without saying that where any reefs have been discovered they have been secured and protected by their lucky finders, who will not part with them except at a big price. 