"SHARE PUSHING."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1937, Page 5

"SHARE PUSHING."

ENGLISH CAMPAIGN. i SAFEGUARDING INVESTORS. i MEW ZEALAHD OOKOERMEIK Wide publicity in English papers decrying the activities of "bucket shops" and "share pushing" in general, has led to a promise of Parliamentary action to safeguard 'the British investor, as announced by the president of the Board of Trade, Mr. Walter Runciman. A departmental committee is .to be set up to inquire into the operations of fraudulent vendors of shares and recommend what action should be taken. The need for legislation to cuj-b the activities of these bucket shops was urged in a recent leader in the "Financial Times," in which it was claimed that profits reaped annually from sheer sharepushing are in the neighbourhood of £6,000,000. "When it is considered that these profits represent the takings, not even of the most unjustified speculation, but of barefaced swindling," states the leader, "such a figure is tantamount to a public scandal." This outspoken criticism in England points to a growing realisation that the investor should be protected against the wiles of unscrupulous a «hare hawkers. This attitude is of interest to New Zealanders and the need for similar vigilance here has already been expressed by those desirous of encouraging the investment of overseas capital in thi* country. The action of the Coalition Government some years ago in ordering an investigation by a commission into certain company promotion schemes was a first step; but it is felt by well-infoFmed observers that more vigilance is needed, particularly at a time when so many new venture* are being-set afoot with

returning prosperity. The commission made outspoken comments on the methods adopted to obtain money from investors in Britain, Australia, India and elsewhere, and said that serious harm would result if these methods were not abandoned. The chief complaints in the past have related to the use of land, particularly in certain parts of North Auckland. Whatever may be the potentialities of poor grade land, there is a widespread feeling that any attempt to sell to overseas investors what are as yet little more than barren tracts, by representing them to be covered with fruitful orange groves, should certainly be nipped in the bud.