"MIDNIGHT COAL CO."

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 10

" MIDNIGHT COAL CO."

FORCED INTO LIQUIDATION

ACTIVITIES EXCEED OBJECTS,

The ■ unregistered company known as the Midnight Coal Company, having no office or other headquarters* except, perhaps, the Waterloo quay, has* been forced into liquidation, and the tools of trade which formed its capital have been seized by the powers-that-be. The primary object of the company was "heat at other people's expense," and the downlall of the company resulted from the changing of this object—without proper legal procedure—to one of "heat at any Prloe; • and Jack, and Harry, and Mick, who were the leading lights amongst the directors, believed not in anything raw. They did not like raw meals, and they did not care for the rawness caused in their ill-clad bodies by the chill of the winter evenings. The capital of iheir company was" comprised solely in the things which belonged to it, .md these were svme eight hand-carts and a few old sacks.

In the first stages of their activities their method was to make night raids on the quay, from which, as occasion perTw 6?',,^ drew a suPP ly of the coal that fell from the carts and trucks Now their activities and their gains in this direction were necessarily limited, as the smooth surface of the .quay did not cause a great deal of coal to fall to their lot. There was only one way 'of increasing the returns, and this was resorted to. The procedure was for a. couple of members of the company to visit the quay and, by climbing about the railway trucks, cause a more plentiful fall of coal. This was then swooped upon by those members of the company who were responsible for transport. As time went on this method in turn failed to meet the ever-increasing demands.. It took a lot of coal to decently load the eight trucks which.the members trailed in their wake, _and eventually it was found that operations proceeded just as merrily—and with much better results—if the carts were loaded direct from the trucks. A _few hundredweights ..of coal in the evening were then easily- procured, and only, a minor amount of attention was paid to the droppings that had in the first place occupied the attention, and gained the object, of the company. It was after this stage had been reached in the activities that people who were interested in the dealings of the company began - to. be more interested, and the inevitable happened. Like other companies who exceed their rights, they found themselves up against the law. Two or three things were against them, and the chief of these was the large amount. of coal they had in their possession when action was taken for their forced liquidation. The amount "was some twee hundredweights—3s4. pounds to be correct—and the gang had then only got a decent commencement in.the evening's activities. .

All that remains to tell is that eight carts, all in a row, are now lined' up m the yard at the Police Station, and the wheels which have in the past assisted to" remove the spoil are going rusty for wantof work. Meantime, the boys are wondering lust what the next step invthe proceedings is going to be; but now, when the late hours of the night are. chimed,' their haunt is not Waterloo quay.: ■' „ "'■',■••'