N.Z.L. AND M.A. COMPANY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume X, Issue 4203, 3 September 1888, Page 3

N.Z.L. AND M.A. COMPANY.

Atan extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in the New Zealand lisan and Mercantile Agency Company, held in London on the 6th July, the Bight Hon. A. J. Muodella, M.P., the Chairman", ■aid, In the coarse of an address This meeting is the necessary sequence of the meeting held on-the 13th of April, tbe minutes of which we have just confirmed. Yes then authorised us to issue 20,000 folly paid up shares. Our reasons for the (sea* wan fully set forth at the time, and tbe report of that meeting has been circulated amongst our shareholders. I hare now the pleasure of informing you that these shares hare "all been issued, and hm added considerably to the strength of our proprietary and to the number of on shareholders. They were taken up 'ls part by the old shareholders, and in part by the debenture-holders, and the remainder by upwards of 300 new shareholders. This brings up our proprietory to between 1300 and 1400 shareholders, and I do not believe any institution in the City of London, in proportion to its capital, haa a better proprietory than we now have. The whole amount being taken up wa regard it aa our first duty to profit' bythe present position of the Company, In the manner foreshiadowed when we submitted to yon our proposal to make this Issue. We have now a subscribed capital of 14,000,000, and a capital paid np on the old aharea of abont L 364.000. - When th* sixth issue of shares is folly paid np, aa it will be in the course of the . present year, then will be a further addition of LGOO,OOO, which, with a reserve fund of L 270.000, will show an aggregate working capital of 11,134,000, a position very different to that which the Company occupied a few years ago. We propose to go on strengthening this position, and we hope In time to effect a gradual but considerable saving in the interest paid on onr debentures. I may embrace this opportunity of mentioning with regard to the Company's Articles of Association generally, that, as these . wen originally drawn up nearly twenty-five yeara ago, in view of subsequent legal decisions in connection with joint stock companies, they are now to a certain extent antiquated. They were pnparad for a small company with a capital of half a million, having only L 50.000 pud np, a company that was to confine its operations entirely to the colony of New Zealand. Since that time many change* have taken place, necessitating considerable amendments and extensions in the articles. Daring the interval the paid np capital haa increased bom L 60.000 to a sum whieh, as I have already shown, will, inclusive of reserve, shortly amoanc to 1,134,000, and instead of oar being; confined to the single colony of New Zealand, soma three millions of onr capital an employed in Australia.