SPECIMEN HILL COMPANY.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1355, 30 January 1884, Page 2

SPECIMEN HILL COMPANY.

The following letter concerning the management of the above company . appeared in the Otago Daily Times <jf the, 23rd instant : — '■"■•IR, — May I ask you to kindly afford me space to call the attention of the public to what may be termed " the unsatisfactory management of .the Specimen Hill Company at Boatmans." , I, with other shareholders, have been watching with- much interest the '. development of the aforesaid mine,' and paying calls for the last two years, i varying from 3d to ls per share per : month, iv the hope that whrn the i machinery was erected we should be j favoured by the management with a i

crushing immediately after, and> until j th# prwent month hsve cherished that j h WJ__?f ® *« re * the " tiptoe of i ei^clrabn " when it was x ; l_lt ffld^tb tha* the battery was erected | aua^thm crushing would take place t •* _arly (^January " • but our "disgust 3 afld chagrin " may be better imagined j tbtoi Scribed, to use a much hack- . neyed phrase, upon ascertaining this . niohth* that the directors, instead of . doing their best to push on a crushing* . .were delaying operations from week to ' week without assigning any specific reason for their . action, thereby i shaking the confidence of the public j (or rather what little was left) in "the . whole venture, as evidenced by the » low price of shares (50 per cent, lower ; than they were 12 months ago), and the nature of the report now gaining credence here, " that it is intended to crush the very worst description of quartz instead of a fair average '. tiuality." I give the report for what p it is worth, to show the feeling engendered here by the management of the Company. I have no desire to hurl abusive epithets at the directory, but , maintain that the shareholders have a perfect right to expect that the affairs r'. of the Company should be conducted ■ in a fair and open mannet, and that they should be taken more into the ' confidence of -.the' directors than they have been accustomed to lately. Why, may I ask, was the battery not completed within the contract time — viz., by November 1 ? Possibly there may \ be a good reason assignable, but the , shareholders have not been acquainted of it, neither have they had a report of the last meeting in December sent to them— at least I have not been I favoured with one. I would suggest, in order to give the ' directors an opportunity of justifying [ their management, that they be questioned at the meeting to be held on the 26th inst. as to their "past management," "future intentions," and "when the first crushing will take. | place " ; and how; it is so large a liability as from £2,500 to £3,000 . exists after we had been led to understand ■ l>y the newspapers — our only source of information — "that calls up to period of crushing (this month) would cover all liabilities, leaving the proceeds of the crushing to be alio* cated as a dividend." If satisfactory, answers can be given, I shall be happy to acknowledge any error I may have unwittingly ' made herein, and ''renevf my confidence in the gentlemen constituting the directory. — I am, &c, A CHBisTcm/BCH Shareholder. January 21.