ON RAISING AND LAYING OUT CAPITAL. 23 



hands of a firm of construction engineers, who undertake 

 the whole outfit from the retorts to the burners, at an 

 agreed price. There are firms who lay themselves out for 

 this class of work, and, in fact, make a speciality of it, and 

 if a well-known, reliable firm is employed, the result will 

 probably be satisfactory. But it is only human nature to 

 think of self first and of the shareholders second. There 

 are opportunities of working off second-hand plant, more 

 from a desire to find a home for it than from a conviction 

 that it is just the thing that the company requires. There 

 have been so many improvements in every department 

 that second-hand apparatus, particularly if over twenty or 

 twenty-five years old, should be looked upon with some 

 suspicion. I have known some few instances where the com- 

 pany has not been fortunate in the selection of its con- 

 tractor, and as a consequence is saddled with an expensive 

 lot of unsuitable or antiquated second-hand plant, that is 

 troublesome and costly in working. Some of it has been re- 

 jected from other works on account of particular defects, and 

 any saving in first cost is swallowed up by lower working 

 results. But these are the exceptions rather than the rule, 

 and if a reliable firm has been engaged, and not been 

 cramped by niggardly, bucolic bargain-driving, consisting of 

 a senseless beating down of price, which is considered 

 sound business in some country districts, a good dividend- 

 earning plant is put down. But the constructing firm, 

 especially if they come from a distance, cannot be expected 

 to make a very accurate forecast as to probable consump- 

 tion per annum, or per day. 



In some rapidly increasing districts, it is a wise policy to 

 put down a plant of ample size, with a margin for future 

 increase. But what is the use of a 5,000,000 cubic feet 

 plant, and the prospects of combining a fair dividend on 



