PLATINUM.
The so-called platinum boom on the Stock Exchange is at present a rather small affair, albeit capital values of companies affected—that is to say, land companies in the area of the platinum discoveries--are calculated to have appreciated in the aggregate to the extent of about 11,000,000, and in some of the low priced land shares the rise has been over 100 per cent. In commenting upon the rise, the Times with a good deal of common sense, observes that inasmuch as the extraordinarily high price for platinum is due to its scarcity, " the reports of discoveries in the Transvaal, some- times couched in optimistic language, while intending to tie a ' bullish' influence, would, if they were fulfilled, actually prove to be ' bearish' since any material addition to the supply of platinum must necessarily affect for the time being,
at any rate, its price." As to the value and extent of the discoveries themselves, it may fairly be said that no detailed authentic information is really available --a eiremnstance, however, which does not necessarily mean that the discoveries are not valuable, for in these mining discoveries there is sometimes a coy reluctance to impart information on the part of the " discoverers " only to be surpassed at a later period by a wealth of detail as to the value of developed properties.
A. W.
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