It has been represented to ns by share holders in the Thames Investment Com pany that the mode of investing the tunds of the Company, as disclosed in the balance sheet, is most unsatisfactory. It appears that the Company has upwards of £3000 to its credit, equal to more than ten shillings per share. Of this sum £2,500 havo been advanced .on short call at- five per cent., upon the security of one thousand New Zealand Insurance Company shares, and £600 have been lent to the Bismarck Gold mining Company. Granted that the security in the first instance is good, the shareholders consider—and with very good reason—that the rate of interest is ridicu lously low; and that if the directors cannot find better investment they ought to divide the bulk of the surplus among shareholders who could use it to much better advantage. 'No doubt if mattersare not: conducted to the liking of shareholders they are themselves a good deal to blame for their want of interest. The last meeting lapsed for want of a quorum, and those who have invested their money in the Company manifest such an utter carelessness about its management that its concerns naturally fall into one or two hands. If a majority of the shareholders sympathise with the complaint that iB urged against the locking up their funds in the present way, their proper course js to call an extraordinary meeting for the purpose of moving the directors to adopt a course more acceptable to the wishes of the proprietors of the Company.
