THE PANAMA COMPANY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2591, 26 April 1869, Page 3

THE PANAMA COMPANY.

On Eriday, Feb. 12, a meeting of the creditors and shareholders of this company was held at the City Terminus Hotel; Mr Cave, M.P., in the chair. The purpose of the meeting was to enable the new board and the joint committee of creditors and shareholders appointed in October last to report their proceedings, and to consider what steps should be taken as to the liquidation of the company. The Chairman said he desired to make a short statement to the meeting, and any questions shareholders or creditors put to him afterwards should be fully answered, as he had nothing to conceal, and if the old directors who were present, and the chairman of the Royal Mail Company (Capt.'Mangles), or the directors of the company, had any explanations to offer they should have an opportunity. He and those who were associated with him preferred to meet the shareholders and creditors than sending out a statement, and one reason for taking this course was that there was no money, the whole of the money subscribed to meet the difficulties of the company a short time since having been returned in full to the subscribers, when it was found that the circumstances under which it was asked for had so changed that the money could not be serviceably applied. He then entered upon a short history of the company’s affairs, and said that all connected with the concern were thunderstruck last October at an advertisement in the papers calling a meeting for the winding up of the company. At that meeting he was appointed chairman, but he found that on the same date a letter was given to Mr Marshall, who acted for the Royal Mail Company, order ing the agents of this company at Panama to give that gentleman all the facilities in their power for his carrying on the service—that was to say, Mr Marshall was to have the use of this company's coals and stores, he acting for the Royal Mail Company. The shareholders of the company having resolved that the service should be continued, a telegram was sent to Panama and the colonies, saying, “ Meeting of shareholders —liquidation refused. Service to go on.” This reached Panama the same day as they had news of the proposal of the directors to stop, and it was read to Mr Marshall. The directors then had an interview with the Royal Mail Company’s representatives, to desire to know what instructions Mr Marshall had, and the answer given was deemed satisfactory, both by the directors of this company and the shareholders. He then considered it his duty to open negotiations with other companies, and a negotiation was submitted to the joint committee, when* plan was submitted for restoring the company, and before the end of October authority was giveu to the Eoyal Mail Company to receive the subsidy from the colonies on condition that the services should be continued by that company as the agents of this company. The heads of agreement were drawn out for the Eoyal Mail Company to continue the services for a year, and a successful appeal was made to this company’s shareholders for the pecuniary meaus, when news came that Mr Marshall had given notice to the Government in the colonies that the services would cease. He (the chairman) thought the prospects of the company were most hopeful, as the affairs had been conducted iu such a manner that there was a margin for a decrease of expenditure

to the amount of £24,000 a year, and, in fact, the services could have been made to pay without a passenger or a single ounce of freight. Mr Marshall, when the telegram was read to him at Panama, said his instructions were to take the ships and to sell them without delay. This precipitate conduct, on which explanation was requisite both from Mr Marshall and this company’s agents in the colonies, had prevented the company from realising the full value of its property, for it would of course have realised more as a live property than as a dead one, and every one in the colonies, from the Times correspondent, had commented upon this action as too precipitate. Thus, the money subscribed by the proprietors had been of no use, and it had been returned in full. He concluded by moving that a liquidation by the Court of Chancery should be sought in the interests of the creditors and shareholders. Mr Giles seconded the motion. Mr Proctor, a debenture holder, declared that the debenture money had been obtained under false representations, and he expressed his determination to reserve his right of proceeding elsewhere against those who had issued those representations. Other statements were made, and one was that the Eoyal Mail Company had given this company an advance of £60,000 for a mortgage of £120,000 on this company’s property. The resolution was then carried, and the Chairman moved that Mr Young should be the liquidator. An amendment was moved that the chairman should be the liquidator, but he positively declined the position, and the originial motion was carried. In Vice-Chancellor Malin’s Court on Feb. 18 two petitions for the winding up of “The Panama and New Zealand Steam Navigation Company,” in accordance with a resolution passed at the above meeting, were ordered to be in the paper on Friday, Feb. 26, and Mr John Young, of the firm of Turquand and Young, was appointed interim liquidator.