SPARE THE ROD, YOU SPOIL, &c.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 705, 4 September 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

SPARE THE ROD, YOU SPOIL, &c.

THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —In your report of the proceedings at the annual meeting of the shareholders of the Wellington Meat Export Company, we read, “Mr Booth. . . It was purely in the interest of stockowners that they had engaged extra space at a time when freight was at a premium in other parts of the Colony. Promises had been made about the large number of sheep that would be sent down for shipment, but as they were not sent, the Directors had to fill up the space them- < selves.” “Mr Nathan. . . He had, against his convictions as a business man, consented to the freight engagements over which they had lost so heavily, because of the promises held out by country shareholders as to the space that would be required. They refused, when the market fluctuated, to give the promised support to the Company which they were led to expect.” I did not myself attend the annual meeting, nor did I intend to have any say in this matter. • The Directors have been most unfortunate in their management and its consequences, in a measure through no fault cf their own, and one naturally objects to “ kick a man when he is down,” but we must draw the line somewhere. The above statements of the Directors at the annual meeting confcaiu most serious charges against the stockowners generally of these parts of the Colony which I, as a stockowner, utterly reject. Will the Directors .be good enough to name the guilty parties as the only now possible way to clear the innocent? I think they will find difficulty in naming any one stockowner, relying upon whose future promises of support they, the Directors of our little Company, with so little capital, were warranted in so wildly chartering shipping space; whilst we know of at least one leading stockowner—may be, the only one consulted —who strongly advised caution, the majority of the stockowners being, like myself, in utter ignorance of what was being done. “ Oh ! you naughty Johnny ! ” “ Oh, ma ;it wasn’t me, ma ; it was Bobby did it ! ” Will the Directors answer me this : Is it true or untrue that Shaw and Savill’s local agents hearing, though not from the Directors themselves, of the perilous position in which the Company had been placed fcy the action of the Directors in chartering so much shipping space, most kindly cabled to Shaw, and Savill asking their permission '.to“grant relief ; that Shaw and Savill promptly replied granting such permission ; that the local agents then offered the Directors to lieve the Company by, instead of taking several thousands of the sheep for which . they had engaged space in 18844 taking them when sheep would be plentiful, in the months of February and March, 1885, which offer, had it

been would have relieved the Company of all further responsibility with respect to finding those sheep, as the Stockowners, as they have since shown, could readily in those months have filled the space on their own account ; that the Directors absolutely rejected the °J relief so kindly thrust upon them ; that they compelled the Shipping Company to find the space for 7000 sheep m December, 1884, and compelled the shareholders of the Export Company to find the sheep from a bare market, and in the months of October, November, and early in December, before and during shearing time, not certainly the most favorable season of the year ? I trust the Directors will kindly favor me with a reply to the above. —I am, &c., Thos. C. Williams.