Solicitors Object to Publicity Given Fees

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 734, 6 August 1929, Page 7

Solicitors Object to Publicity Given Fees

“MOST OFFENSIVE” PROTEST TO POWER BOARD A letter protesting agaiust the “flippant remarks” made by certain members of the Auckland Electric Power Board, when the legal fees charged by a Wellington firm were under discussion recentl3 r , was received at a meeting of the board yesterday afternoon. Exception was also taken to the amount of the fees being discussed in open meeting. The Power Board recently raised a loan of £250,000 from the Australian Mutual Provident Society. The documents were drawn up by the board’s

solicitors in Auckland, and forwarded to Wellington for perusal by the society’s solicitors, Messrs. Chapman. Tripp, Cooke and Watson, who charged £36S for their services. This sum was paid under protest. “The ordinary courtesies of business demanded that the correspondence which took place between us concerning a third party should have been treated as confidential,” said the letter from the acting-manager of the A.M.P. Society, received yesterday. “To have bandied it about in open meeting, and supplied it to the Press, is, to say the least, most offensive.” “The letter was not regarded as confidential,” explained Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, chairman. “We have no confidential accounts.” He referred to a letter from the Bank of New Zealand, which had floated many loans for the board in the past, in which its solicitors’ charges were quoted as one-eighth per cent., with a maximum charge of £IOO. In loans since April, 1924, the bank has accepted the documents as drawn up by the board’s solicitors. “This shows our protest against the Wellington firm’s charges was not unreasonable,” said Mr. Holdsworth.