MOLYNEUX KOHINOOR COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2691, 11 October 1905, Page 29

MOLYNEUX KOHINOOR COMPANY.

A-n extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in the Molyneux Kohinoor Dredging Company was held in the office of the company, High street, on Friday evening for the purpose of considering, and, if thought fit,, passing a resolution favouring liquidation. About a dozen shareholders were present, and Mr Hugh Adam (chairman of directors) presided. The Chairman, in explaining the reason for ©ailing the shareholders together, said the fact of the matter was that the poor results of the past three months' operations had resulted in the almost total expenditure of their funds. He then proceeded to read a summary of receipts, and expenditure as from the 3rd February, 1904, to the 6th October, 1905. This showed gold receipts during that period to have been £8566 13s 2d, amount received from calls £5608 2s *$&, and interest £68 2s 2d, making a total' of £14,242 17s lOd. The expenditure during, the- same period consisted of: Dredge and. preliminary expenses, £4552 Is 6d ; dividends, £2054 ss; wages, £4066 7s sd; renewals and stores, £1658 6s 6d; coal, £1188 15s lOd; other expenses, £609 8s 9d. There was on the 6th October cask in hand to the amount of £163 12s 10d. The actual expenditure was £14,129 ss. There was (ha continued) 5s per share to call up on 7375 shares, but he thought it as well not to call up that money in the meantime until they had discussed what course to pursue. After the tributors had finished tfieir-term the company had met with a series of mishaps. In the first place the cylinder broke and caused a delay of six ■weeks, as a, new. one iad to be procured from Melbourne. . Then the breaking of a bolt in the- cylinder caused further delay, but since then ..they had been working fairly steadily. Altogether the dredge appeared to have been left in a -very- unsatisfactory state by the tributors. The buckets wanted relipping, and the machinery required a complete overhaul. They had spent a good deal of money in the ■way of repairs,, and the dredgemaster iad reported.: that if -'he got on to payable gold it ■would be -necessary to stop for a •week or two ' and spend a further sum of money on the dredge., If they Bold the dredge and claim for, say, £1000, there . would be sufficient, after paying the vendors itheir 5s per share, to pay a dividend oi 5d per share— that was, after providing the 5s liability on' the contributing shares. The vendors would have to be considered beiore they could declare any dividend to contributing shareholders. There did not appear to be much hope of making the dredge pay on her present claim, and, as far as could be eeen at present, prospects did not warrant their going on much further. No doubt there would be a few good patches in. the claim, but not sufficiently rich for a company to continue to work in the other ground. Recently the dredgemaster heard at night that the dredge was stopped, and he went down to get on board, but had to wait until 7 o'clock in the morning before he could do so, there appearing to be no life on. the dredge. When he ultimately, did get. on board he asked the two men on the shift- how long the dredge had fceen stopped, and they told him half an hour. The dredge iad apparently been stoppeS for some time, and it was also" found that a quantity of coal had been done away with in some mysterious manner. heedless to say, ttiejtwo men were not retained on the dredge. ■ Mr Eawlins expressed the opinion that the names of those two men should be furnished to -every dredgeowner on the river. Other companies would -thereby be protected from such treatment.- A number of those present concurred in this suggestion, bub the Chairman said it would hardly be advisable to act as suggested, as they would lay themselves open to prosecution. After some little discussion it was moved by Mr Glendining, and seconded by Mr Greenwood 1 , that the company go into liquidation. The motion on being put to the meeting was carried unanimously. The question of whether the dredge should be closed down immediately or continue to carry on until the date of the meeting to confirm the resolution favouring- liquidation was then discussed. Mr Bawlins said that were they to close down there was a lot of movable stuff on board that was almost certain to go astray, and'he thought it would be advisable to carry on til! the next meeting. Another thing was that the dredge might in the meantime strike something good, and, if EO, it would fetc'a a bigger price than it would at present, on. leaving off on poor gold. He moved in that direction, and suggested that, it be left to the discretion of the directors as to what should be done were the dredge to strike Dayable gold. The motion also favoured" the dealing by the directors •with any tenders that mdght come on for the purchase of the concern. The motion was seconded by Mr Stewart, and carried unanimously. The Chairman, in reply to a shareholder, had previously mentioned that only one tender had so far been received, but the directors did not deem it advisable to disclose the particulars at this stage. The meeting then closed.