DAIRY COMPANY’S APPEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26410, 14 March 1947, Page 10

DAIRY COMPANY’S APPEAL

MASS PAYMENT TO FARMERS’ UNION PA. ' " ' "WELLINGTON, Mar. 13. Decision ,was reserved in the appeal of the Mercury Bay Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd., the hearing of which was ,commen.ced by the Court of Appehl‘yesterday. The company is appealing r against the judgment of Mr Justice ,Callan in July, 1946, declaring that the' Memorandum of Association of the appellant corporation was so framed that -it prohibited the association from paying a proposed contribution of 30s per annum per head of all persons-’who supplied the company with cream to the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. Mr V. N. Hubble, for the respondents, contended that even if the company’s shareholders had been unanimous the company would not have been able to alter its Memorandum of Association to empower the proposed payment to the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, the Companies Act of 1933 not permitting an alteration for such a purpose. Counsel contended that the benefits resulting from the activities ’• of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union would accrue to the company if its members continued to contribute to the union individually and on a voluntary basis. Counsel for the appellants, in reply, contended that the general clause in the company’s memorandum was sufficient to authorise the payment by the company of mass subscriptions to the Farmers’ Union.