THE MANAWATU RAILWAY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9400, 9 April 1902, Page 4

THE MANAWATU RAILWAY.

The stormy meeting of the Manawatu Railway Company (write* the Wellington correspondent of the Dunedin Star) has been the talk of the town to-day. The developments justified all the previous rumors which have reached you that the Board is a body divided against itself. Great personal bitterness was "imparted intc^some of the speeches, and the chairman's accusations of laxity and incompetence against some of his co-directors, leading business men here, created a profound sensation. The facts which stand out most prominently are: that for a long time past the directors have been under-stating their assets, in order to avoid taxation, placing extraordinarily large sums to reserve, and writing off sums out of all proportion for depreciation. Shareholders have now awakened to the fact that by this means, and by pressure, put upon the Government to purchase by the Chairman, who has been J

largely trafficking in shares on a rising market, they are likely,unless negotiations are stopped, to be obliged to sell the property at half its value. A large section of local holders are averse to selling the line at all, but a motion to avoid sale was defeated by a large number of imported proxies. The New Zealand Times says that as a result of the public washing of dirty linen the directors will only have themselves to blame if a Parliamentary inquiry into the company's affairs is Insisted on; but it must be said that, considering the difficult position, the directors' errors were rather those of the head than of the heart. The sinister aspect of the affair is that any director should take advantage of his intimate knowledge of the company's affairs to traffic in shares, especially in face of the fact that the shareholders had given no mandate to sell.