COMPANY'S DEBTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24368, 2 September 1942, Page 4

COMPANY'S DEBTS

EIGHTS OF CREDITORS ASSOCIATED GOLD DREDGES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday Leave to present a winding-up petition against Associated Gold Dredges (New Zealand), Limited, was granted to A. and T. Burt, Limited, Dunedin, by Mr. Justice Northcroft to-day. The application was made under the Debtors Emergency Regulations by A. and 1. Burt, one of three firms that built dredges for Associated Gold Dredges and were owed a total of £49,012. Mr. Paterson, Dunedin, for the applicants, said three dredges had been built and the amounts owing were: Burt's, £19,008; Dunedin Engineering and Steel Company, £14,220; Andersons, Limited, £15,784. The last c ' | ?™ might bo subject to adjustment. Ihe company's nominal capital was £450,000, in 445,000 ordinary shares ot £1 each and 100,000 deferred shares ot Is «ach. The subscribed capital was 295,000 ordinary and 19,050 deferred. Payment to Bank The Bank of Australasia, said Mr. Paterson, had a first floating charge on the assets of the company, and a debenture for £50.000 was given to the bank on October 13, 1939. The company's total liabilities at present were £104,235, the principal one being £50,965 to the Bank of Australasia, but this had been reduced by payment to £38,905. Mr. Paterson submitted that at present the Bank of Australasia was exercising the rights of a receiver in connection with the company's assets and that had led to the trouble the contractors had in getting paid. The bank was acting as an actual receiver without having taken any steps necessary to crystallise its floating charge on the company's assets. W hen the company knew these proceedings were going to be taken by the unpaid contractors and there had been protracted negotiations. it paid £12,000 to the bank in reduction of the floating charge. That was a most daring thing to do. Call Being Made Mr. Brown, for Associated Dredges, said the present position was that a call was being made which would net more than £14,000. Any order for winding up at this particular stage would be disastrous for the company. The company was solvent, but the difficulty in the past was that it had not been allowed to use the money available. Mr. Brown asked that the Court should postpone the case for some reasonable time to allow the company to make some arrangements by which the debts could be met to satisfy its creditors. Within a few months the contractors would be receiving payment. A call was being made and gold production was increasing. His Honor said he was of the opinion that the leave sought should be granted. The special regulations under which the application had been made had withheld from these creditors the right to pursue their normal remedies. They had been rendered _ impotent against a stronger and more influential creditor than themselves. In all the circumstances, the creditors were entitled to pursue their rights.

DILUTED MANURE SERPENTINE IN SUPER WASTEFULNESS ALLEGED "The policy of the Department of Agriculture, if allowed to continue, will kill the public's confidence in it," said Mr. E. W. Yates, managing director of Arthur Yates and Company, yesterday, in criticising the decision to force fertiliser companies to mix one part of serpentine with three of superphosphate. He based his criticism on the bulking out and increasing the weight of superphosphate at a time when economy of labour, trucks, tyres, petrol and sacks was vital. "This is not a time for wasteful stunts to fool the farmer," said Mr. Yates. "The idea that all superphosphate be diluted with a soft rock costing no more than lime and that the farmer he made to pay more for it than for undiluted superphosphate is obviously a very profitable idea. "It is* not only expensive and wasteful to the farmer, but it impoverishes the soil of potash. Lime is a much better and cheaper material to kill the acid and make superphosphate insoluble in water." Farmers, said Mr. Yates, should be given the option of buying undiluted superphosphate at a higher price if costs demanded it, and it would be to their benefit and that of the country if this were allowed. The greatest wastage by dilution would be in railage to the farmer, lorry cartage to the farm, and the extra labour involved in spreading the adulterated product. The added 25 per cent of serpentine represented somewhere in the region of 50,000 tons of adulterant in the North Island annually. From the quarry to the fertiliser works and from the works to the farm, the wastage of labour and transport was obvious. The real reason for the compulsory addition of serpentine appeared to be that the Government was unwilling to face an increased subsidy. HAMILTON STATISTICS (0.C.) HAMILTON, Tuesday The vital statistics for Hamilton last month were as follows, those for August, 1941, being given in parentheses: Births 58 (63), deaths 30 (26), marriages 24 (19). HOSPITAL RATING (0.C.) PUKEKOHE, Tuesday Hospital rating was again discussed by the Franklin County Council yesterday, a circular reporting on a deputation to the Prime Minister, the Tit. Hon. P. Fraser, on the subject, was received from the Counties' Association. The council deputed the chairman, Mr. «T. N. Massey, M.P., to continue efforts to obtain from the Government an undertaking that it would be a condition of alleviation granted from State funds that the amount of the grants should be placed by the hospital hoards to the credit of the local bodies as an offset to the heavy levies.