ly no one troubles much about
the matter, though on these rules depends the future efficient working
of the Company, and sometimes its very existence.

Then Directors have to be appointed, and these are seldom selected
because of any special knowledge of mining they may possess, but as a
rule simply because they are large shareholders or prominent men whose
names look well in a prospectus. These gentlemen forthwith engage a
Secretary, usually on the grounds that he is the person who has tendered
lowest, to provide office accommodation and keep the accounts; and not
from any particular knowledge he has of the true requirements of the
position.

The way in which some Directors contrive to spend their shareholders'
money is humorously commented on by a Westralian paper which describes
a great machinery consignment lately landed in the neighbourhood of the
Boulder Kalgoorlie.

"It would seem as if the purchaser had been let loose blindfold in a
prehistoric material-founder's old iron yard, and having bought up the
whole stock, had shipped it off. The feature of the entire antediluvian
show is the liberal allowance of material devoted to destruction.
Massive kibbles, such as were used in coal mines half a century ago, are
arranged alongside a winding engine, built in the middle of the century,
and evidently designed for hauling the kibbles from a depth of 1000
feet. Nothing less than horse-power will stir the trucks for underground
use, and their design is distinctly of the antique type. The engine
is built to correspond--of a kind that might have served to raise into
position the pillars of Baalbec, and the mass of metal in it fairly
raises a blush to the iron cheek of frailer modern constructions. The
one grand use to which this monster could be put would be to employ it
as a kedge for the Australian continent in the event of it dragging its
present anchors and drifting down south, but as modern mining machinery
the whole consignment is worth no more than its value as scrap-iron,
which in its present position is a fraction or two less than nothing."

Next, a man to manage the mine has to be obtained, and some one is
placed in charge, of whose capabilities the Directors have no direct
knowledge. Being profoundly ignorant of practical mining they are
incompetent to examine him as to his qualifications, or to check his
mode of working, so as to ascertain whether he is acting rightly or
not. All they have to rely on are so