DISPUTE OVER MORTGAGE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19122, 17 September 1936, Page 2

DISPUTE OVER MORTGAGE

McArthur concerns

RECORDS PRODUCED

{Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day

The legal action involving a review ol the activities of a number of companies associated with J. \V. b. -'McArthur was continued in the Supreme Court vesterd’ay. Counsel for the plaintiffs completed his opening address and called a number of witnesses, some ot whom produced books and records ol several of .the companies concerned, making court exhibits to the number of 45. The plaintiffs are T. H. Dawson and L Knight, as trustees for the debenture holders of New Zealand Redwood Forests Limited, and T. E. Jones, of Dargaville, one of the debenture holders.

The defendants are Sterling Invest mentu Companv (N.Z.) Limited, ii liquidation, Wynwood Investments Lint ited, and the National Investment Corn pany of Queensland, Proprietary, Limited!.

The action was brought by the plaintiffs for the purpose of having declared invalid a mortgage of £7500 which was given in April of 1931 by New Zealand Redwood Forests Limited, to kotahi Lands Limited, and on subsequent dates was transferred to various other companies.

Continuing ids opening address, counsel read from the minutes of Redwood Forests Limited,- which he alleged showed that the chairman, J. \V. S. McArthur, who was a large shareholder, had, in defiance of the wishes of his codirectors, imported on to tire board M. H. Hampson and F. F. Hockley. The result, was that the control of the Redwood Company was passing into the hands of McArthur and those who were of like mind with him.

The defendants alleged, said counsel, that- the plaintiffs had been guilty of acquiescence in the validity ot the memorandum of mortgage and could not now claim that it was invalid, but no one could be held to have acquiesced without full knowledge, not only of the facts, but of his right of relief. Itwas not until the commission of inquiry was set up by the Government that' the affair's of n'll these inter-lock-ing companies came to light, and the trustees knew they- had the right to take, proceedings against the Kotahi Lands Company for alleged fraud. The hearing was adjourned.