November i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
433 
a list of the Companies connected with Wynaad, and 
some particulars about them : — 
Tiie Wynaad Companies. 
Name. 
Capital. 
Price of 
Property 
Paid in 
Shares. 
Area 
Acres. 
Balcarres 
£180,000 
100,000 
50,000 
1,198 
Carta Para 
50,000 
inettpro 
300 
Central Wynaad 
10", coo 
02,000 
33,000 
1,560 
Cherambadi 
10(1,000 
32,000 
10,000 
200 
Cootacovil 
100,000 
00,000 
32,000 
300 
Devalah Central 
120,000 
70,000 
20,000 
986 
Devala Moyar 
200,000 
132,000 
61,795 
2,055 
Devalah Provident .. 
75,000 
30,000 
120 
Dinyley Dell 
100,000 
70,000 
30,000 
600 
Ind. Consolidated ... 
400,000 
275,000 
130,000 
1,920 
Indian Gold Mines ... 
110,000 
Do Glenrock 
100,000 
50,000 
33,000 
3,000 
Do Grange 
100,000 
50,000 
33,000 
300 
Do Kingston 
130 000 
91,500 
43,333 
270 
Do Mammoth ... 
150,000 
70,000 
1,500 
Do Phoonix 
150,000 
85,000 
33,000 
800 
Do Trevelyau ... 
150,000 
90,000 
50,000 
930 
Needlerock 
125,000 
S5,000 
32,000 
250 
Nilgiri Gold 
120,000 
85,000 
30,000 
200 
Parcherry 
150,000 
98,000 
50,000 
299 
Rhodes Reef 
190,000 
DJO.OOO 
50,000 
50 
Simon's Reef 
170,000 
55,000 
S. East Wynaad 
100,000 
60,000 
2,400 
South Indian 
100,000 
47,000 
1,200 
South Wynaad 
100,000 
05,000 
32,500 
677 
Tamhracherry 
100,000 
120,000 
52,000 
6,000 
Wala Wynaad 
75,000 
45,000 
15,000 
500 
Wentworth 
120,000 
80,000 
40,000 
2,0i7 
Wynaad 
R650.000 
1,000 
Wynaad District .. 
£100,000 
40,000 
25,000 
270 
Wynaad Glen 
00,000 
80 
Wyn. Perseverance... 
80,000 
50,000 
26,"666 
600 
Tho nominal capita] of these Company amounts to 
DO less a sum than £1,030,000. To this we may add 
a list of tho Companies working in tho Kolar Dis- 
trict :— 
THE MYSORE COMPANIES. 
Namo. 
Capital. 
Price of 
Property. 
Paid in 
Shares. 
Area 1 
Acres. 1 
Balaghat 
R 3,60,000 
1,20,000 
60,000 
150 
Colar 
£ 150,000 
40,000 
320 
G South'n Mysore 
75,000 
45,000 
150 
iai -Hind ... 
R12 00,000 
7,50,000 
3,25,000 
640 
Madras 
£ 135,000 
*'),000 
25,000 
320 
M v son 
„ 135.0H0 
55,000 
750 
Mysore Reefs .. 
,. 120,000 
75,000 
30,000 
320 
Mine Reefs 
,, 100,000 
60,000 
33,000 
300 
N. Ooregnm ... 
,, 120,000 
75,000 
40,000 
320 
Nundydroog ... 
,, 100,000 
50,000 
33,000 
Ooregum 
„ 125,000 
75,000 
259 
The nominal capitals of these Mysore Companies amount 
to £1,210,000. So tho combined uomiual capitals of 
tho Indian Gold Mining Companies abovo named, plus 
the R6,00,000, of the Southern India Alpha Com- 
puny In . praotioally absorbed in the Indian Gold 
Him* Company of Glasgow) may be set down at 
£0*806,000. 
Ono characteristic of tho majority of the«e Companies 
will tot My slriko most person! who look through tho 
Handbook, namely, tha' their h ad ollices and Boards 
of Directors arc in Lond n, and they aro almobt en- 
tirely administered at a distance of live thousand miles 
■Om the mines. (Ono Wynaad Company, the Wynaad, 
has it i hnud olhco in Bombay ; as a!.-o has ouo of 
109 
the Mysore Companies, the Kaiser-i-Hind ; and an- 
other Mysore Company, the Balaghat is administered 
from Madras. ) The explanation of this is that as the 
promoters could not reasonably calculate upon get- 
ting the money they wanted in India, they Lad to re- 
sort to the place where tho money was to be had for 
the asking. Doubtless, if the British public had looked 
askance at the schemes, few of the Companies would 
have been started. But while admitting that the 
promoters were wise in their generation in goim_; 
far afield for the sinews of war, we consider tliao 
risk is run by attempting to direct the affairs 
of tho Companies from London. The local man- 
agement of mines has been found to work best in 
Australia and elsewhere ; and we see nothing in the 
new industry in India to justify the supposition, that 
this plan, which commends itself to common sense, 
can be safely departed from in this country. More- 
over, very few of the Directors can be regarded as 
men who possess a practical knowledge of gold, or 
any other mining. There are one hundred and fifty- 
two of them, and the majority are retired officials. 
The gentleman who seem* to have been most in re- 
quest, is Captain W. B. McTaggart, formerly of the 
14th Hussars. This ox-warrior, is a director of six 
Companies, namely, the Nilgiri, the Nine Reefs, the 
Nundydroog, the Mysore, the Madras, and the Great 
Southern of Mysore; and in regard to five of these 
Companies he also occupies the position of one of the 
vendors of the land acquired. He is the son of a 
Madras merchant ; but we are unacquainted with his 
other qualifications to direct the working of half-a- 
dozen companies, whose capitals total up to £665,000. 
Presumably, a director should be none othe r than a 
man who is competent to direct; and we do not 
readily understand how such competency can be ob- 
tained without a practical knowledge of the business 
that needs direction. One might imagine from the 
list of directors in the Handbook that "any fellah" is 
good enough to join the Board of an Indian Gold 
Mining Company whereas, if people who know a good 
deal about gold; mining in Australia and America 
are to be believed, the Directors of Gold Mining 
Companies ought not to be "guinea pigs," but men 
who have established a reputation for shrewdneas and 
practice in the business of gold mining. The old 
proverb warns us that a "little knowledge is a dangerous 
thing" and not a few of the gentlemen whose names 
are before us might declare with truth, that since 
their minds are blanks with regard to mining they 
are not hampered with the dangerous modicum of 
knowledge refened to. But those Directors who are 
dummies ate so many causes of weakness to the Com- 
panies under notice ; for, as they become sooner or 
later conscious that they are at sea on the subject 
of mining, they are tempted to allow the ent ire man- 
agement of the Companies to drift into the hands 
of individuals, whose ability to undertake the 
task may be open to question though there may be no 
indisposition on their part to learn the business 
that they have undertaken ; but in the absence of 
suitable training, tho requisite experience may cost a 
good deal to acquire, and the shareholders will have 
the honor of paying the piper. 
This is already being discovered in India, f.>r 
some of tho above-mentioned Companies have ap- 
pointed to the charge of their mines, men whoso quali- 
fications for tho responsibilities imposed upon them are 
less obvious than their relationship to Directors or 
Secretaries. Tho title of Mining Engineer is readily 
assumed ; but there is reason to believe that dome of 
tho men who aro uow called Captains of mines, would 
not pass muster for miners of the first class in Aus- 
tralia. In such cases tho Directors have exercised 
the patronngo which ha* fallen into theii hands in a 
more good-uatumi thau judicious mannor ; and there 
