The Hastings Standard Published Daily. MONDAY, JULY 6, 1896. THE UNFORTUNATE SHAREHOLDERS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 60, 6 July 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

MONDAY, JULY 6, 1896. THE UNFORTUNATE SHAREHOLDERS.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The liquidators of the Colonial Bank have made a move that has a deep significance for the unfortunate shareholders of that institution. A circular letter has been sent to the shareholders that a list of eontributories is to be settled before the Judge on the 31st instant. This is the orthodox procedure, and viewed by itself is unimportant, but taken in conjunction with recent events it is full of meaning. It will be remembered that the provisional liquidators, who were nominees of the directors, just prior to the appointment of permanent liquidators coming before the Judge saw fit to distribute by way of dividend £IOO,OOO, giving the shareholders one-fourth of their capital o* ten shillings per share. Whether they were warranted in making flhis distribution Is a point that we wmot decide; bat viewed from the

light of to-day it is too apparent that it was a " move " to quieten the recalcitrant shareholders. The liquidators, however, received £133,000 in cash from the Bank of New Zealand, and perhaps there was some reason for the distribution apart from the one suggested by us. This distribution left the liquidators with £33,000 in hand, but this amount must be reduced by £6,000, being the amount of liabilities not taken over by the purchasing bank, leaving the sum in hand at £27,000. It will be remembered that in the evidence tendered before Mr Justice Williams in respect of the sale of the Ward assets to Messrs Lee-Smith and Reid, it came out that a draft for £30,000 for the oats that did not exist and another for £16,000 secured on 1,000 shares in Nelson Bros., Limited, figured in the balance-sheet of the Colonial Bank, which balance-sheet was guaranteed as being correct. These two drafts aggregating £16,000 and their place in the balance-sheet would be under British bills or bills in trayixitu. It is now well known that these two bills are valueless, but having been guaranteed as good to the purchasing bank they must be paid. The liquidators have in hand £27,000, less such expenses as may have been incurred in the course of liquidation, with which to pay this £46,000, showing a deficiency of £19,000, to say nothing cf the incidental expenses. The "B" and "C " lists will not yield anything for the Colonial Bank until the Bank of New Zealand has squeezed about £400,000 out of them, and to expect anything out of the "D " list would be simple folly. With these facts it is not difficult to see that the unfortunate shareholders of the Colonial Bank will be called upon to disgorge a portion of the first dividend of ten shillings. It is more than probable that some of the shareholders are not in a position to respond to the call of the liquidators, thus increasing the burden of those shareholders whom we may regard as solvent. It is an unenviable position, and we pity them. The shareholders, however, must blame themselves for taking big men and their big words at par value.