The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1889.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5416, 4 January 1889, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1889.

The failure of any old established firm of merchants can only bo regarded as a misfortune, aud it is quite in that light that the news will bo received of that of Messrs. Kinross and Co. In the large and multifarious business of that firm wliich has been carried on iv Napier for close upon thirty years, it is iinpo.s. iblo not to suppose that its ramifications must extend far and wide. It is, therefore, impossible to say to what extent the failure will affect others, and how far the misfortune of the one firm will bo shared by other business houses, and even by private individuals. The firm of Kinross ijud Co. i. the outcomo of that of Stuart and Kinross, which established itself at Wellington in ISn .. Three years af'torwardg Mr. Kinross ettma through from Wellington with tho late Mr. Parke, then Provincial Surveyor, tho party having cut their way thn.ugh the Seventy-mile Bush, taking u'course which was afterwards followed by the main road. Attracted hy the obviously grand futuro of Hawko's Bay, Mossrs. Stuart and Kinross decided on opening business in Napier, which at that time whs better known as Ahuriri. About the year ISG4 the two partners, who had been fello-v p-seiiger- to New Zealand,

dissolved their connection, Mr J. M. Stuart taking the general merchandise branch, and Mr J. G. Kinross scouring the wool, station, and shipping business. Thence arose the two firms of Stuart and Co. and Kinross and Co. Mr J. M. Stuart retired to England many years ago, leaving tho business to his brother John, and, subsequently, devoting himself to politics, offered himself as a candidate for the representation of Belfast. Returning from an election meeting he caught cold, and shortly after died. Mr John Stuart, after some years, also retired to the Old Country, and the firm of Stuart and Co. disappeared from Napier. The sister house of Kinross and Co. grew rapidly, and from the system of business eonduoted in those days was as much a bank as a general station agency. At that time —we speak of some twenty years ago—the profits must have been enormous, and Mr Kinross, in the possession of valuable sheep runs that he found himself compelled to take over, was reputed to be immensely wealthy. The collappe of the Glasgow Bank in 187", it was understood, soverely affected the firm, but there was nothing to indicate any disastrous results, and, in fact, it has only been quite recently that disquieting rumors wore afloat. It is difficult now to realise how it came about that a business which embraces so large a wool export, and which must have so many profitable station and shipping agencies, has been brought to such a pass as to necessitate resort to the Bankruptcy Court. Mr. Kinross has occupied inaov public positions during his long residence in Napier. He was a member of the Provinoial Council, and subsequently represented Maraekakaho in tho Hawke's Bay County Council: ho is a Justice of the Peace, and a member of the Harbor Board. In tho last returns of flock-owners ho is put down as owning 32,155 sheep at Glenross and Raukawa.