EXTRAORDINARY DISCLOSURES RESPECTING THE CARRON. COMPANY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 175, 26 January 1860, Page 4

EXTRAORDINARY DISCLOSURES RESPECTING THE CARRON. COMPANY.

•Tli sTliur6day says i—- “ into possession of an extra* ordinary*ticgMment,. ‘_Sii'iDmons'"of Reduction*. Count;' and Payment, Macleajt agdinstf Catron fconifanj.* TJie das6 lias been' instituted in the Court of Session by Lieut.Colonel Henry Dundas Maclean, of Lazonby Hal!, Penrith, against the Carroo Iron Com*

pany,; charging the manager or managers thereof with systematically, and over a long series of years; falsifying their balance-sheets to the end : that their profits might appear to be much less than they- really were, and in consequence of which the said Colonel McLean sold certain Carron shares belonging to him to the Company at a price greatly below thenreal value. We. believe that a summons, somewhat similar in its conclusion, has been raised at the instance off Thomas Tod, of Drygrange, in the county of Roxburgh, against William Dawson and others.” Of course the-state-ments setforth in the summons referred to are ex parte. In addition to the summons, our Glasgow contemporary'publishes the. “ correspondence,” or document in. which the allegations are particularly set forth. This document occupies upwards, of three folio columns of print, and contains no less than forty-eeven separate allegations. From these it appears that the manager at Carron is the sole manager of the company, and the affairs are entirely managed by him, Joseph Stainton was such manager from 1786 till his death in 1825. He was then succeeded as manager at Carron by his nephew Joseph ’Dawson, who died in 1850, when another nephew-, Win,.Dawson, became, and still is, manager at Carron. Joseph Stainton had, by his inflnenne with the company when he was manager of.it, contrived to fill all the principal offices therein by his own relatives; and being himself the largest shareholder in the company, lie and they had practically the entire control and management of the affairs of the company. It has been recently discovered that Joseph and William Dawson, in concert with their uncle Henry Stainton, prepared false in which the annual profits of the company and amount of its prosperity and. assets were systematically and fraudulently stated at sums far below, their real value. In this way, from 1838 to 1847, there were concealed from the knowledge of the shareholders profits realised by the company to the amount of more than £175,000. They have not permitted any share of the company which has' been offered for sale to 1 be purchased by any stranger or partner other than a member of the families of Stainton or Dawson. The result is, that out of the 600 shares forming the capital of the company, while , 154 have been absorbed into the company, 3£B are held by members of the families of Stainton and Dawson, leaving only 118 in the hands of the independent members.

Such are some of the allegations set forth in this extraordinary document. What the answer to these grave charges may be, of course remains to be seen ; and in the meantime we naturally abstain from all comment on the case. We may state, however, that the disclosures contained in the Glasgow paper created the grea test excitement on ’Change yesterday.