OPERA HOUSE COMPANY.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 12, 14 July 1903, Page 7

OPERA HOUSE COMPANY.

— o A DISPUTED ELECTION. An extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of the Wellington Opera House Company was held yesterday afternoon, Mr. W. Barber, Chairman of Directors, presiding, and fourteen other shareholders attending. The meeting confirmed the resolutions passed at a pievious meeting altering the date for the annual meetings, reducing the number of directors to six, regulating the periods at Mhich a proportion of the. directors shall retire from office, and the control of shares. , The adjourned general meeting for tUie purpose of filling vacancies on the directorate and electing an auditor was then held. The retiring directors were Messrs. \\ . Barber, J: Flockton, and T. G. Macarthy, who offered themselves for reelection, while Messrs. J. W. M-Lellan and G. H. Baylis were albo nominated and contested the seats. Before the election took place Mr. M'Lellan questioned the right of Mr. Macarthy to hold office. He was informed that Mr. Macarthy held a mortgage over the Cuba-street Extension property of the company's property, andl consequently must be held to bo ineligible to sit as a director, as the articles of the company disqualified any one who was concerned in, or participated in, the profit of any contract with the company. A mortgage was a contract, and it carried interest. The Chairman thought that if the clause had been intended to apply to a mortgage it would have specially mentioned it. Mr, M'Lellan: There is no doubt that it is a contract. j Mr. Macarthy enquired whether Mr. M'Lellan could prove that -he held a mortgage. Mr. M'Lellan replied that the Chairman was his authority that there was a mortgage, and that interest had been paid. The Chairman said it appeared in the balance-sheet. , Mr. M'Lellan said there was another objection. The articles laid it down that no director should hold more than a tenth part of the shares in the company. How many shares did Mr. Macarthy hold? The Chairman replied th,at Mr. Macarthy did Hob hold more than he was entitled to. Mr. M'Lellan.,: I am glad to hear it. The Chairman indicated that he would proceed with the election. If Mr. Macarthy was ineligible some shareholder could afterwards take the necessary steps to unseat him. He would take a show of hands on the nominations. • The result of the voting was as follows : — Mr. Barber, 10 votes ; Mr. Flockton> 8 ; Mr, Macarthy, 8 ; Mr. M'Leiian, 3; Mr. Baylis, 4. The Chairman declared himself and j Messrs. Flockton and Macarthy duly elected. Mr. M'Lellan asked that a note should be taken of his protest against the election of Mr. Macart-hy, on the grounds he had mentioned. The question of having one or two auditors was decided by a, majority of the meeting deciding that one auditor was sufficient, and Mr. H. M. Lyon was appointed at a remuneration of £5 ss, a motion that the fee' should be £10 10s being lost on the voices. This concluded the formal business, but the Chairman, at the request of a shareholder, made an explanation regarding the trouble which had arisen between the directors and Mr. George Musgrove over the subject of directors' seats. This matter is referred to elsewhere.