QUARTERLY DIVIDENDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20420, 23 November 1929, Page 15

QUARTERLY DIVIDENDS.

"A FRAUDULENT BUBBLE."

SECRETARY SENT TO PRISON. DECEPTION OF DEPOSITORS. [BT TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] ] NVERCARGILL, Friday. Tho New Zealand representative of Quarterly Dividends', Limited, and National House Purchase, Limited, David Neilson Johnston, was sentenced to-day to threo months' imprisonment for obtaining money by false pretences. Addressing accused, Mr. Justice Kennedy said:—"You have been the representative of two companies whose trickery and deceptive deposit system was a mere fraudulent bubble. Although your representations may have seemed to the ordinary person inero deception, these representations did in fact deccivo persons with little commercial experience, and also persons with commercial (raining who did not stop to think. "You aro a man of intelligence and education, and your past good character and conduct show that you aro in your present position through tho initial pernicious influence of a man at present beyond tho jurisdiction of this Court. Yon had, however, ample warnings from individuals who had experience of tho system, and you were heedless of the warnings in leading articles in responsible nowspapers. "You will be sentenced, Jiowovcr, merely for those offences upon which you have been found guilty, and will not have to bear vicarious punishment for those responsible for tho promotion of tho companies."