NEW STEAM SERVICE. IMPERIAL AND COLONIAL COMPANY. DIFFERENCES AMONGST DIRECTORS. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 370, 22 May 1889, Page 5

NEW STEAM SERVICE. IMPERIAL AND COLONIAL COMPANY. DIFFERENCES AMONGST DIRECTORS. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

The conferences of the directors of the Imperial and Colonial Trading Company during the past three weeks have, I learn on good authority, been nob altogether plain sailine. The Messrs Mclver, many of the more practical and far-seeing members of the Board consider, place an altogether unreasonable va'ue on their services as managers. Thoy want to be paid by commission on every conceivable thing: — so much percent, on every carcase shipped from New Zealand, so much per cent, on every ton of freight, so much per cent, on every voyage completed, and so on, and so on — a formidable list. Sir Walter Buller and another director with a turn for statistics worked out these percentages, and found that if the Company did any sort of a business, they would amount to a prodigious sum. *' If we pay our managers at this rate, what shall we have left for the shareholders ?" they asked one another dismally. The Messrs Molver furthermore insist on their engagement as, managers being for a period of at least ten yeai s. They themselves are to be at liberty to shunt the Company at any time at three months' notice, but the shareholders (come weal, come woe, come crying neglect or gross mismanagement) are to be tied down to the Messrs Mclver for ten long years. Sir Walter Buller has very properly protested against, this unjust arrangement, and argues that at any time a majority, consisting of at least two-thirds of the shareholders, should have power to dismiss their managers. There are unfortunately several precedents for the 10 years' engagement arrangement. It was so in the case of Ismays and the White Star Company, of Anderson Andersons and the Oiient Company, and lastly of the Mclvers themselves and the Cunard Company. With regard to the'lmperial and Colonial Trading Company, I understand that if the Messr3 Mclver insist on the terms I have mentioned, the Board will have to be reconstt ucted, as several of the present directors would, in that case, retire. Meanwhile, I learn that an invitation has been sent to a most influential financial magnate at Wellington to join the Board, and act as Company's representative in Wellington. Since writing the foregoing 1 have heard that Sir Walter Buller has absolutely withdrawn from the provisional Board of the Imperial and Colonial Trading, and that Sir Joseph Lee will probably withdraw. A well-informed city friend writes : — " I hear that Messrs W. and C. Melver, who stipulate for a ten years' engagement as managing agents with seats on the Board , will receive at the very least £15,000 per annum in commissions, whether the Company pays or not, and everything else is cast on the same liberal scale. Already several of the gentlemen who were invited to take seats on the board have raised their protest against this extravagant mode of dealing with the shareholders' money. The only one who has absolutely withdrawn his name from the provisional Board is Sir Walter Buller, but I hear that Mr H. R. Russell is very dissatisfied with some of the proposals and may follow his example. Sir Joseph Lee, of Manchester, who has not absolutely withdrawn, says that his engagement with the Manchester Canal Company, where he is superintending the expenditure of four millions sterling, will prevent his joining the Board for the present. One thing is certain, however, that the Liverpool scheme has stimulated the activity of the other shipping companies, which aie adding to the number of their boats, and increasing the facilities for freezing and shipping. Whatever happens, therefore, the result to the colony of this keen competition is likely to bo a lowering of the freights and an increase in the price of mutton for the English market."