ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 122, 23 May 1894, Page 5

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

London, April 21. NOTES ON" THE NEW ZEALAND LOAN AND MERCANTILE . AGENCY .COMPANY. Though the examination of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile directors has nob concluded ab the tirao of writing and open comment or criticism is therefore impossible, the following notes on what may be termed the incidents of the trial will no doubb be of intoresb. Needless to Bay, they are supplementary to our report of the proceedings. MR LARKWORTHY. Mr Lark worthy, who occupied the wit-ness-box for the besb part of three days, was fortified with quite a formidable array of documents, reperts, balance - Bheets, tables, telegrams, and letters. He seemed anxious to show himself perfectly au fait with the very intricate affairs of the Company, and of its connection with the Waikato Land Company, and implied that if 1 the Board had trusted him things would never have come to this k pass; but they called him pessimist and preferred the tortuous finance of Thomas Russell, C.M.G., and the reports of Mr Elder, the Melbourne manager. Mr Larkworthy showed strong feeling.'Nor iB ib remarkable when one remembers that, according to reporb,he has lost the savings of years id New Zealand, and had to hypothecate his pension of £600 a year to the Bank of New Zealand.

Evidently the object of the Official Receiver in his examination of Larkworthy and tbe other directors has been to establish the following :—(1) Negligence on the parb of directors and officers. (2) Suppression and concealment of facts to mislead shareholders and debenture holdere. (3) Improper advances to Waikato Land Company in order to benefit certain of the directors who were directors in both companies. (4) Over-trading. MR MUNDELLA. The-examination of Mr Mundella attracted a huge crowd of the junior bar. It ie notevery day one has an opportunity of seeing.a Cabineb Minister in the pillory. The Right Hon. gentleman began admirably, but after the Official Receiver had dropped him into several neat little traps, all tending to .indicate incomprehensible negligence, he grew exceedingly nervous. The drift of Mr Mundella's excuse—and evidently he recognised its futility—was chab long yeara of prosperity had led him into trusting official auditors, etc., etc., and not examining accounts himself as he ought tjo have done. He had still a very high opinion of many of their servants, and described Mr Battley as " a most honourable man and a greab credit to any Company." Tho President of the Board of Trade also testified to a firm belief in Mr Larkw-orthy's integrity, but thought he took too peseimistic a view of the situation in Australia in his now famous report on the Company's properties there.

Mr Mundella always believed Mr Thos. Russell to be an enormously wealthy man, and it was not till 18S9 when he found the Woikato Land Company were lending him huge sums that ho was disagreeably undeceived. Mr Mundella with grim humour related the astute manner in which Mr Russell persuaded him to go into the Land Company : " Russell camo to me and said, 1 Look here, wonld you caro for a nice little investment in land in the Waikato?' He made quite a favour of getting the shares for me. I paid him £3,500 for 2,000. When he handed over the scrip, my benevolent friend remarked, 'You lock these up, it will be a splendid property when its reclaimed. We are confining it to a few friends—a dozen or so. Ib is a little private investment, and you will nob be called to pay anything more. Very 3oon, however, Mr Mundell was asked to pay calls, numerous calls, and then cume tho disagreeable discovery anenb the Russell loans.

MR HENKY MONCRIEFF PAUL. Mr Moncrieff Paul was the witness who euflbred most ab the hands of the Judge. He is a grizzled veteran who has been 2U years in the Company's service, and undoubtedly owes a great deal to Mr Rubsoll. Hia answers were marked with oxtraordinary, oven exasperating caution. Ho insisted on looking out and verifying from the accounts each sum referred to, causing useless delay, and irritating the Court to the verge of trenzy. Every answer this witness made was qualified. Frequently he would branch off into long historical dissertations, his one obiocb throughout seeming to be to avoid a direct " yes " or " no."' Important questions were times and again evaded by Mr Paul tripping up Counsel in some absolutely superfluous details such aßa misplaced date. When finally cornered he fell back on " I don't remember," or "I cannot speak from memory." •'I notice, sir," said the Judge, "that when you use your favourite phrase, 41 cannot speak from memory,1 you accompany it with a smile. Why ?"

Mr Paul ir.advieedly grinned. Grinned furtively, it is true, bub etill grinned. From this momonb the Judge dropped on him like the proverbial thousand of bricks, accused witness of gross hair-splitting, and intimated that his lack of franknesH was injuring rather than helping tho Company. Mr Paul laffc tho box at last. _ Tho Judge dismissed him temporarily with a final caustic cut, and tho intimation that when recalled ho must endeavour to do himself greater justice.

SIR JAMES FERGUSSON. Sir James Ferguseon waa in Court from tho commencement of the proceedings, and during the examination of Mr Lark worthy, showed marked perturbabioa and nervous discomfort. This struck me and others wibh surprise, as I have seen Sir Jame'3 sit through and even conduct stormy Company meetings without turning a hair. On the third day of the Larkworthy disclosures Sir James's wrigglings grew more pronounced, and finally, aba convenient moment, his counsel arose and begged that he might proceed with Sir James' examination without delay, out of turn if necessary. "My client," quoth Reid, sonorously, "is a man of intensely nervous temperament, and suffers acutely from suspense." The Judge was blandly sympathetic, but intimated chafe the Official Rocaiver must follow the routine he had marked out as most convenient for eveibody.

Mr Stewart himself seemed brutally callous to Sir James Fergusaon's sufferings. When at last the Right Honorable gentleman did enter tho box, he pulled himself together pluckily, and mada a capital witness. There were no reservations ia his answers, and no dosiro to evade or.escape responsibility. Tho matter of his testimony might be open to criticism, bub its manner was admirable, and when he closed the judge said so much, and frankly thanked him. Sir James is heavily hit by the Company's failure, and his son, or rather hia eon's trustees, hold £7000 worth of debentures.

Mr Paul (as I discovered myself from the register some months ago, and wrote you then) has not had a share in the Company for some years: Curiously enough, he sold hia last lot on the day after Mr Lark^ worthy's alleged pessimistic report on the Australian and New Zealand properties bad been received. But that wbb merely a coincidence. There was no connection between the report and the sale. Mr Paul assured the Court of that much. JUSTICE VAUGHAN WILLIAMS. The Judge who has Lhe New Zealand Loan and Mercantile in hand is, though slow, one of the ablest men on the Bench, and has a special reputation for dealing

with masses of figures. His grasp of bhe complicated mess now before him fills onlookers with amazement and admiration, and his watchfulness never fails. Again and again when his lordship has seemed to be absorbed in a search for this paper or in the examination of that document, he has atarbled the Couro by pouncing on counsel and displaying a most unwelcome comprehension of an illegitimate manoeuvre. His humour (he does notipossess much) is of a very dry description. When the Company's solicitor, Sir Thos. Paine, was in the box, a question of costs cropped up, and the n'rm'a bill, a huge folio volume, had to bo handed up to the Bench. The Judge offered no comment on its prodigious length, nor on it sum- total. What he did say was :—

"Is this a bill of costs? Dear me ! Has it any index, Sir Thomas?"

Later Sir Thomas was trying to explain his advice to the Board nob to go too much into detail anenb the Australian losses in the annual report, bub merely to mention them. "The other course," he maladroitly remarked, " was thoughb to be too strong." Tho judge seized on this unlucky phrase and constantly poked it at witnesses. THOS. SPURGEON'S WELCOME.

On Thursday evening the Metropolitan Tabernacle was again thronged from floor to ceiling by thousands of loyal brethren who wera on this occasion assembled to welcome Chas. Spurgeon's eon to the permanent pastorate. Tho iNonconforurist ministers also turned up in forco to wish Air Thomas Spurgoon well, and those who could not appear in person, wrote their cordial congratulations. The Home Counties Baptist) Adßociation sent a resolution expressing their heartfelb good wishes. They were all very glad to welcome Mr Thomas Spurgeon. They believed him to be the right man in the right place. They were looking forward to good times. Let them give him fair play. He asked, as hie father had done, for the co-operation of the Church. Dr. James Spurgeon made the mosb sensible and kindly Bpeech it has been my lot to report since his brother died. At first, 'tis no secret, he favoured, or seemed to favour, Dr. Fierson's rather than his nephew's candidature for the paetorate, and when he spoke of- the latter in public hia remarks, despite their sanctimonious character somewhat savoured of spite. On Thursday his tone had completely altered, and the uncle gave the nephew his hearty welcome. He said the son must not do his father's work, bub his own. They should nob expect him to do his father's work, bub should let him take his own way and give him a free hand. Let hia father's memory onlighten, nob overshadow ' him. (Cheers.) Tho Rev. C. Spurgeon, brother of Mr Thomas Spurgeon, also said a few words of welcome, and brief addresses were given by the Rev. Frank Smith on behalf of the Baptist churches of Peckham and the neighbourhood, and by the Rev. J. Bond on behalf of the Wesleyan Methodists, and other Nonconformist and Evangelical bodies.—The Chairman then announced that he had to present Mr Thomas Spurgeon with a cheque for £100 which had been subscribed from some friends in the church as an expression of iove. (Cheers.)— Mr Thomas Spurgeon, on rising, was greeted with loud cheers and with an enthusiastic waving of handkerchiefs. Ho said this was at once the proudest and tho humblest moment of bis life. Who could stand in that place without thinking of him who had gone before into tho land of rest and reward ? He proposed to do with the cheque what he thought his father would have done. He would hand ib over to the Treasurer of the church for those institutions that were in tho moßb necessitous condition. (Cheera.) Ho had felt coustrained, nay,' compelled, to accept tho pastorate, because ib was borne upon his heart that the voice of the Church was the voice of God. He had never sought to occupy that place—he had tried to leave the whole matter in God's hands, and he bslioved that He had made His will plain. His father's wishes on tho subjecb he had long known. In 1885 hia father had written to him at Auckland, " Get very strong and whon I am older and feebler be ready to take my place." (Cheers.) He did nob indeed send for him* at the end, for it was one thing for him to send, bub quite another for the Church. He must say just one word about the future., Thoy had a new paator that night, but there were not going to be a multitude of innovations. Ho had no higher ambition than to do tho work in his father's way. He hoped everybody would see the wisdom of rallying round the standard in tho hands of a comparatively young standard-bearer, and of helping him with their experience, wisdom, love, and prayer ; and that there might bo no breaches in their walls and no gaps in thoir ranks. (Loud cheers.)