SHARES FOR NOTHING

Manawatu Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12806, 2 June 1914, Page 8

SHARES FOR NOTHING

Press Association —By Telegraph. AUCKLAND, May 30. Judgment was given by Mr Justice Stringer in the Supreme Court in a claim by William Dalton against a company called Manures, Limited, and its directors for the return of £(525, which a'mount was subsequently reduced to £SOO, alleged to have been invested in the Company as allotment 1 and application money in respect of 2500 shares. The defence was that the money paid over by Dalton was a loan to Tyreman, the main promoter in the floating of the Company. Evidence was given by Alfred Taylor, J. S. Dickson, M.P., James G. Culpan, John Rountree, directors. Each admitted having accepted fifty shares in the Company for nothing, getting the assurance that they would have no responsibility whatever. Dickson said he consented after declining three or four times, and after signing the prospectus. He heard nothing further about the Company, as he was electioneering. The Judge said plaintiff failed to prove that the £SOO was paid to some person with authority to receive it on behalf of the prospective company. More )ver, he thought there could be no question that in the transaction was u loan by Dalton to Tyerman, and made under such conditions that plaintiff would know the money would not gee into the coffers of the Company. His Honor added with reference to the application for shares that the transaction had merely been engineered by the agent, Hughes, in order to get his own commission. Although it had been proved that the directors had not been guilty of misconduct or negligence it seemed to him when gentlemen apparently of business experience lent their names to a prospectus and signed documents which might mislead the public they were guilty of grave misconduct from the public point of view. Judgment was entered for defendants.