But the dawn of better days has arrived, and with the advent of schools of mines and technical colleges there will in future be less excuse for ignorance in this most important industry. This chapter will be devoted to Company formation and working, in which mistakes leading to very serious consequences daily occur. It is not necessary to go deeply into the question why, in the mining industry more than any other, it should be deemed desirable as a general rule to carry on operations by means of public Companies, but, as a matter of fact, few names can be mentioned of men who mine extensively single handed. Yet, risky as it is, mining is hardly more so than, say, pastoral pursuits, in which private individuals risk, and often lose or make, enormous sums of money. In floating Mining Companies the first mistake usually made is not providing sufficient working capital for meeting all necessary expenses until permanent profits are realisable. This neglect has caused the sacrifice of many good properties. In England, the Companies are often floated fully paid up, but the same initial error of providing too little money for the equipment and effective working of the mine is usually fallen into. Again, far too many Companies are floated on the report of plausible, ignorant individuals posing as mining experts. These men acquire a few geological and mining phrases, and by more or less skilfully interlarding these with statements of large lodes and big returns they supply reports seductive enough to float the most worthless properties and cause the waste of thousands of pounds. But the trouble does not end here. When the Company is to be formed, some lawyer, competent or otherwise, is instructed to prepare articles of association, rules, &c., which, three times out of four, is accomplished by a liberal employment of scissors and paste. Such rules may or may not be suited to the requirements of the organisation. Generally 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 landed in the neighbourhood of the Boulder Kalgoorlie.