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Show THE EMMA WISE. The following letters appear in the "London Mining World" of October 26: Sir, Having originally purchased a few shares in this mooh-talked-of mine, for permanent investment (and which I intend to hold whether the shares be quoted at five pounds or fifty), I have no intention ot crying "stinking fish" over my own "creel." I have no doubt the mine is a very fair one, with unmistakable good points, else the shareholders would not be periodically benefited by tbe benevolent advice of brokers, who generously bestow upon each a sheet of superfine wore paper and a halfpenny stamp for the disinterested disinter-ested purposes of advising them le look after tbeir own interests, and sell out wh'lo they may "with aprofit, or at least without Iobs." I chance to have some shares in another American mine, at present under a cloud, but do benevolent individual, "on 'Change" or elsewhere, seems to feel the slightest interest in my capital therein invested. No one proposes to purchase my shares in the "Great Silver Lako and Leviathan Lead Company Com-pany (Limited)," although even its day lor a'tracting disinterested generosity gene-rosity may yet arrive. Without doubL people who part with their property, whether Emma pharos or anything else on the advice of circulars alluded to, arc downright fools, as the smallest modicum of oommon sense would teach them that no man whose business was money making would pay for printing, print-ing, paper, and postage stamps, solely fur the ulta charitable object of relieving re-lieving them of their worthless bar-pains bar-pains 1 Like miny others, I was attracted at-tracted to the Emma shares simply by the prospectus, and afterwards, had I thought of parting with them, the above mentioned oirculars would, of course, have induced me to change my mind, Verily I tbe senders of these documents havo a poor idea of the in- i telligeDce of their countrymen, and their success shows it is not altogether unmerited. But having now made these "remarks, I may as well say frankly that the Kmma has not as yet fulfilled the glowing expectations of the prospectus, which led us to believe that last May wc should have the dividend divi-dend doubled, or 36 per cent I Certainly Cer-tainly 18 per cent, to auy but a somewhat some-what greedy person, seems good interest; nevertheless the best mining authorities concur in sayiDg it is not the maximum to be expected from a foreign mino, and really many shareholders share-holders woald be glad to know why the Kmma should pay smaller dividends divi-dends than the Flagstaff aod other American mines, particularly after the glowing prospectus whiob represented it as the gem of them all. I thick therein e imply this to be added, that if the dividends are to continue at IS per cent., the fees of the directors ought to be reduced to one-half of what they arc at present, as it is quite preposterous that tho directors of this mine should be paid twice as much as those of mines paying double the dividend. divi-dend. Indeed, 1 think that the salaries sala-ries of all directors should be regulated regu-lated by the dividends of the shareholders. share-holders. This arrangement would stimulate tho energies of tho working members of the board, and would be at the worst sufficiently advantageous for the merely ornamental ones. I am, &a, Climax Sir: Of late we have been frequently fre-quently told by the directors that there is ore in Fight to pay the dividend of 18 per cent, for such and such a time. Why, of oouree, it is to bo hopfd there is, or the whole concern would have been anything but a fair speculation. What real investors want to know is, when this dividend will be increased at least to the minimum of other first-class first-class Amcrioan mines? We were led to Buppose this would take place as soon as the company had 180 000 at its disposal. We should therefore be glad to know whether this precious 6um is yet in hand, and if so, why the dividends are not increased according to the terms of the pros-pectus? Of course the directors of ihu mino can very well afford to rest upon their oars, but there is the greatest possible difference between directors who are receiving more than average salaries, and shareholders who are receiving less than average dividends. Perhaps some of your correspondents would try to throw light on these questions? A Bona-fide Investor. Glasgow. |