"You Got to Be in It"

When it comes to gambling on wildcat stock schemes, Australians take a back seat to few other people. They have tossed an estimated $202 million into 16 oil-exploration companies, although only three have sunk wells and only one (controlled by the California Texas Corp.) has struck oil. They have also invested $22 million in twelve uranium companies, of which only three are producing ore. A speculative boom sent stock prices so high this year that government officials felt compelled to issue warnings against the excesses. Last week the warnings proved wise.

In Western Australia, near Exmouth Gulf, oil drillers struck salt water at 3,600 feet, the same level at which a nearby well had hit oil. In two frenzied days of panic selling, some stocks dropped as much as 50% on the Sydney exchange; the total value of oil shares dropped an estimated $67 million. Australia's secretary of the

Department of National Development, Geologist H. G. Raggatt, then pointed out that more dry holes would be drilled than good ones in Australia's search for oil. Heartened at that bit of sound reasoning, Aussie traders started bidding stocks up again. Oil and uranium issues recovered about 80% of their losses. Their confidence all but fully restored, investors down under were happy again. Said one: "It's like the lottery. You got to be in it to win it."

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