INVOLVED AFFAIRS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 67, 16 September 1936, Page 13

INVOLVED AFFAIRS

THE MERCANTILE

AGENCY

MEETING OF CREDITORS

The affairs of the Dominion Mercantile Agency, Ltd., were discussed in the Magistrate's Court today when the Official Assignee, Mi\ S. Tansley, presided over ■ a meeting which was attended by between 40 and 50 people, the majority being solicitors representing creditors.' Assisting Mr. Tansley was Mr. G. 1.. Powles, the solicitor appearing for the petitioning , creditor, Messrs..Ross and Glendining, Ltd.

"This meeting," said the Official Assignee at the outset, "is called for the purpose of appointing,a liquidator and for the appointment of a committee of inspection. But please don't ask how individual accounts stand, for no one knows. That will be gone into later when the books are written up." The meeting would have to decide, he added, whether application should be made to the Court for the appoint; ment of a liquidator other than the Official Assignee—someone who knew the nature of the business, which was rather difficult and involved and which would take a lot of clarifying.

Mr. Powles said that the present proceedings followed on from an informal meeting of creditors which had been held in. Auckland. Liquidation would necessarily have to take place in ' Wellington, where the registered office of the company was. He thought that the Official Assignee should do the winding up, as he had already done much work in this: connection. Seeing that the creditors, who numbered some 700, . were widely scattered throughout New Zealand, he did not think that a committee of inspection could be representative or really necessary: .'....-..

The meeting unanimously decided to make no application to the Court for the appointment of a liquidator in the place of the Official Assignee or for the appointment of a committee of inspection, and Mr. Tansley will carry on with the liquidation.

Considerable-discussion then ensued upon whether the business should be carried on or not in the meantime. It was finally decided that the Official Assignee should call for tenders for

f thepurchase of the business as a going I concern and as a whole, or for the purchase- of the separate branches in Wellington, Auckland, and : Christchurch.

The question whether it would be profitable to the creditors to keep the offices open and carry on the business pending a possible sale was debated at some length, the consensus of opinion being that it would not be worth while. "Some things," -said Mr. Powles, "ard shrouded in mystery, and we do not know how we stand. There is a feeling in some quarters thai the conduct of the business has not been in recent years quite what it ought to have been: that, however, will be the subject of a report,from the Official Assignee to the Court." ;

Although no detailed statement was available as to the exact financial position of the .Dominion Mercantile Agency, the deficiency, was statedto be between £6000 and £7000, creditors numbering 700 and debtors 500. .