THE MERE SHAREHOLDER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 25, 12 January 1935, Page 6

THE MERE SHAREHOLDER

A Plea for His Rights

Prominent accountants in Great Britain are stressing the need of better statutory provision for safeguarding the rights ot shareholders in large companies. When the secretary of a big company casually used the expression “the mere shareholder" in reply to some criticism recently he drew upon himself the caustic comment of a contributor to “The Accountant (London). , , “To my mind,” the writer remarked, “this is a very good example of the attitude of present-day directors and company officials to that large but unfortunately unorganised section of the general public who represent the mere shareholder.’ Ln the early days of company development the number of shareholders in a company was comparatively small and they could exercise a large measure of control by attendance at the general meetings and were therclore always to be reckoned with Under present-day conditions, when the number of shareholders has grown to very large proportions it is impossible for all shareholders to attend the general meetings and we have a position in which the shareholders count tor so little as to be referred to by a company secretary as ‘mere. “The only remedy appears to be in the formation of associations of shareholders of each company, the officebearers being empowered to act on behalf of the members of the association at all general meetings shareholders. Except when special points arise affecting the rights ot the shareholders and the capital construction o l the company, no reference would lamade tc the individual members of the association Such associations would, ol course, require to hold genoral meetings from time to time for the purpose of electing office-bearers No director or official of the company would be eligible as an office-bearer of the association.”