A MEAT COMPANY

Evening Star, Issue 19298, 10 July 1926, Page 2

A MEAT COMPANY

BsETOSIUMSS LOSE £30,000 PETmOH FOB RELIEF. [Fl'OlI OIJE FaBLTAMESTARY ReTOIVIER] WELLINGTON, July 9. Several Masicrton residents hav*; petitioned Parliament, on behalf of the general body of depositors in the Wellington Farmers' Meat and Manufacturing Company (in liquidation), praying that the Government will vote £IO,OOO for the purpose of being distributed pro rata among them. They loaned £31,000 to this company, the deposits including various sums collected for charitable purposes. When tho company got into difficulties in 1923 an investigating committee was appointed by the shareholders, and its report, in its general effect (state the petitioners), was that the unsatisfactory condition of the company was due to the gross negligence of the directors, and that a moral responsibility lay on the directors and shareholders to see that individual depositors with the company did not suffer as a result of their faith in the concern. On August 22, 1923, the company went into liquidation, the whole of the assets being secured to the Lank of New Zealand, which realised on its security and informed the shareholders that there were no funds available to meet unsecured creditors. Petitioners state that the Bank of New Zealand has rendered no assistance in endeavoring to secure from tho company’s directors some restoration of the funds lost through their alleged mismanagement. They contend that through the moratorium legislation, the £31,01)0 lost by the depositors has meant a corresponding reduction in the bank’s losses, and as the State is forested iti the Bank of New Zealand to the extent of one-third they are entitled to ask the Government to refund to depositors one-third of their losses. '