The Loan and Mercantile

Observer, Volume XIV, Issue 795, 24 March 1894, Page 2

The Loan and Mercantile

It was stated amongst the news by cable in the local newspapers the other day that the 'New Zealand Loan and Mercantile authorities are asking the Court in London to set aside the order to publicly examine the directors and officials granted by the Court in New Zealand. Counsel explained that this order was based on the assumption of fraud, and the committee and directors now ask for power to resist the stigma thus cast upon them. They are quite willing that ample enquiry into the affairs of the Company, should be held.'

I hope that the authorities of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile will not be Buooessf ul in their application. Very many people have been impoverished by the financial embarrassment of this company. Great misfortunes and much unhappineas have been brought upon the shareholders* They have been made to suffer very keenly,

and yet it is not in their knowledge where their money went or how it came to be loßt. This they are entitled to know. It is their right to be informed whether the financial embarrassment of the company was brought about in the ordinary course of legitimate trading bneineßS, or whether it was due to recklesß administration or even fraud. The knowledge they require can only be obtained by the public examination of |t he directors and officials, and therefore I hope this will be insisted upon.

It is impossible to J estimate the hardship and misery that have been entailed upon many people— especially widows and orphans -in Auckland by this Loan and Mercantile affair. There were numbers of men and women whose ' little all ' was looked up in the concern, and who relied upon its periodical dividends for their income. They cannot pay the calls that have been ordered. They mast forfeit their shares, and these, in due course, will be nobbled by the wealthy capitalist who bides his time for such opportunities to profit by the disasters that overtake his fellows. Have these unfortunate losers no redress? It is all very well for the officials of the Company to resent the reflection which the order of the Court may have cast upon them and use the shareholders' money in trying to upset that order, but the fact remains that the explanations already given of the causes that led to the embarrassment of the Company are by no means satisfactory. The directors and officials of the concern should be publicly examined, and if they are found to be blameable for the rain and loss occasioned to so many shareholders, Bteps should be taken to bring about their punishment.