WBSTPOBT COAL COMPANY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10621, 17 March 1896, Page 6

WBSTPOBT COAL COMPANY.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sie, —The two letters which have appeared in your coluuiqb under the nom de plmjie of " Ob'erver" are .of puch a character as no gentleman should have published unless oxer his proper name. It is nothing to the purpose to gibe at Mr North or his connection as a director with another insignificant coal company ; nor do I see where "the cloven hoof" comes in wibhreepeet to this gentleman, though, nuless I am greatly mistaken, were we in possession of your correspondent's name we should undoubtedly perceive his " cloven hoof." But, Sir, with the?e things we have nothing to do. What we, as shareholders in the WVstport Company, are concprned with are tbe interests of the company, and we resent the disgraceful manner in which the directors increased their own fees to an unprecedented amount without giving the shareholders proper notice of their intention. I have myself received several letters from shareholders since the last meeting in which they say they sent proxies to the directory but if they had known what was intended to be done, they would not have done so. The committee of shareholders who hare taken this matter in h»nd nre adopting no unfair methods. We have notified the shareholders of what we propose to do, and we have asked thf m, if they approve of our intention, to send as proxies. It was necessary to do this in order to ascurtainif wo had the sympathies of the shareholders with ua, and it is gratifying to u% to know from the responses made that we have that sympathy Your correspondent's allusion to the directors' annual visit to the mines is somewhat unfortunate. They are engsged on one of these now, and from a perusal of the Westport papers their inspection appears to have taken the form of a very agreeable picnic, and I am afraid (for the company) f» very costly one, too, for we read of champagne luncheons and tbe visit of a larga company of ladies and gentlemen to the mines, presumably, I suppose, to assist the directors in their inspection ! This inspection is a farce, quite unnecessary, and a useless expense. In conclusion, I deiire sgain to say that we have nothing in view but to conserve the interests of the shareholders, and I would take this opportunity of requesting every shareholder who has not yet done so, and who may not be able to attend the proposed meetiug, to at once forward their proxies to any one of the committee who signed the circular, and they may rest assured they will be ueed for no improper purpose,—lam, &c,

Dunediu, March 14-.

H. S. Fish.