AMALGAMATED KAWARAU COMPANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22546, 13 April 1935, Page 19

AMALGAMATED KAWARAU COMPANY

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —As a small shareholder in the Amalgamated Kawarau Company, I would like some definite information regarding the work that has been done by _ the directors in the past 18 months. When we in New Zealand took up shares it was on the understanding that the company would go to allotment inside of three months, and we confidently expected to see the new dam well under way long before now; but, although I have looked in every issue of the Daily Times for some mention of it, I have been unable so far to collect any reliable tidings of this will-o'-the-wisp company. As far as I know, the only report regarding it appeared about February, 1934, when the directors stated that arrangements were being made with some well-known London firm, which was prepared to take up the issue and get it subscribed on the London market, on condition that the capital was increased to £320,000. If that is correct, where do the New Zealand shareholders come in: and who is safeguarding their interests in the new company? What has become of that firm anyhow, and, above all, what has become of the New Zealand shareholders' money? I always had the idea that if a company failed to go to allotment within 90 days of the date originally set down in the prospectus the promoters were obliged by law to return such money as had been paid by the shareholders. I am quite willing to pay up the balance of my share money if the company is prepared to go ahead* and build the dam, as I have no doubt whatever that a vast quantity of gold is waitilia on the bed of the Kawarau River for the men who are clever enough to get down to it. But if the company does not net a start soon I could, for one, find fcome other use for my capital.—l am, etc.. G. B. S. Dunedin, April 12.