IMPORTANT COMMERCIAL CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 86, 13 April 1926, Page 7

IMPORTANT COMMERCIAL CASE.

CONSIGNMENT OF EGGS.

INTERESTING SOUTH AFRICAN CASE.

A COMPANY'S DEFENCE. (By Cable. —Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received 1 p.m.) CAPETOWN". April 12. The Imperial Cold Storage and Shipping Company has issued a lengthy statement refuting in detail the allegations of the Oovertiment Commission which held tbe company responsible for taint in a shipment of eggs. The company's statement: declares tbat not a s ; n::le word was said at any time during the 1025 egg season by the Government inspectors as to the supposed presence on the eonrinnv's premises of fruit taint or any substance likely to injure effffs. Purtber. tbat all fruit tbat rassed through the cool chambers of the Imperial Company during the 1925 season was inspected daily while such export lasted by a responsible Government fruit inspector. The company offers to submit its history and affairs to a commission of any three South African judges, confident in tbe knowledge tbat any inouirv so conducted would revesl tbe hollowness and of tbe charges cast so freely at the comonny and its management. — (A. and N.Z.)

The commission was appointed by the South African Covornment to inquire into the cause of tbe of cogs exported from the Union. This had involved a lo.;= of £80.000. Tt issued a startlin? indictment a--=ninst the Imperial Cold Storage and Shipping Company. The report said the board of the company acting on legal advice, refused to allow certain of its officers to give evidence, as certain claims bnd been preferred against them for damaares. The company thus disobeyed tbe direction of the Govenor-Ocneral to assist the Commission. The Commission recommended that all the company* contracts with the Union Government should be subject to a detailed review by the legal advisers of the Government for rescission, or for cancellation where possible, in view of tbe comnany's contumacy. It also recommended tbat the attention of the British Government bo drawn to the company's Bechuanaland concession for the purnose of review. The Commission further recommended that legal proceedings be taken against the chairman of the company and two branch managers. It denounced the company, inter alia, for excessive charges, and declared that it had develoned into a public menace. Tbe egsrs concerned in tbe inquiry became tainted, said the report, owinor to the fact that they were stored in the vicinity of chambers full of decomposing fruit.