DID NOT FUNCTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 204, 29 July 1939, Page 14

DID NOT FUNCTION.

A COMPANY'S AFFAIRS. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, July 28. . “It seems a very undesirable state of affairs that a company should bo launched in this way, apparently without hope of success, and money subscribed by a large number of the public lost,” commented Mr Justice l*'air, in the Supreme Court, when a brewing company, Viking Lager, Ltd., which had never brewed a gallon of lager despite the fact that over £20,000 was subscribed bv the public, was the subject of a winding-up petition by the Union Rank.

Mr Hubble said there was no opposition to the petition. He said the company was incorporated in July, 1932, and acquired a site and a brewer’s license. There had been no attempt to commence building, and no brewing was carried out. About 69,000 shares were offered at £1 each and over £20,000 was collected. Owing to the costs of the formal business and the selling of the shares there was apparently nothing left to enable the company to function as a brewing company. An advance was obtained from the bank in 1933, and that was tlie basis of the present petition. The amount then was about £IBOO.

Despite all the efforts of the receiver to collect the calls to meet the debt there remained a sum of £587 unpaid.

In reply to His Honour, Mr Hubble said the sole assets were the land in an Auckland suburb, which was not worth much, and the brewer’s license, which was renewed annually. “It may lie a matter for consideration by the Legislature,” said the Judge, “whether there should not he some official appointed whose duty it should be to inquire into incorporation and the method in which the capital of a company which fails in this way has been raised and spent. The Court itself has no power to ask for such an inquiry, and the initiative rests at present ujion the shareholders. Thus, for the reason stated, rather than incur a considerable amount of further expense in the conduct of an inquiry the shareholders are content to make the host of a bad job and let the matter go. That |seems an undesirable thing so far as a | company is concerned whose affairs from the inception have been mismanaged. I don’t say that necessarily is the case with this company, but on the fby of tilings it appears that its afdo require some investigation and some explanation.” His Honour made an order to wind up the company and decided that the costs of the application bo paid by the company.