A little still I strove, and much repented,

And whispering " I will ne'er consent " —con- Boutcd,

Under these lamentable oircumstances.boing, like other sages of the modern time, " a baby in finance " (I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word), I naturally looked around mo for a guide which might help me to acquiro the rudiments of the new business into ■which I had rashly plunged. Such a guide I have received, in the very nick of time, from :i financial correspondent who has sent it to me with an ingenuous inquiry "whether I can make head or tail of it" ? (I may as well dispose of this question at onco by men tioning, casually that I can't.) The Guide in question bears on its first page the name of Mr L. 0. Beal, jun., 0.E., mining surveyor, &c, Dunedin. The second page is blank. The third page repeats the name and titles o£ Mr Beal—and nothing else. A fail proportion of the three following pages constitutes the "guide"; and the next, (which is grandiloquently referred to aa "page 7"in the test) contains a series of diagrams which I have found experimentally can be drawn by anyone with a ruler and pen in the space of seven minutes and a-lialf —provided you do not attempt to " make head or tail" of them as you draw. Page B—and last —is blank. Summary: Two pages with author's name and titles and nothing else: one page with diagrams about as abstruse in construction as a house ladder: two pages (I prefer these. myself, and wish there wero more). dead blank : and two and a-half pages of Guide I Stay— I hsid forgotten one important point. On the first of the two title pages is printed in big black letters —'; price, 55." I recommend Mr L. 0. Beal.-jun., 0.E.,&c., to float his book into a company. A'trifle of 2s per reader per page (unbound) for this eminent author's ideas is altogether too good a thing in the way of " legitimate mining enterprise" to be withheld from an investing and admir ing public. 