MORE LIBELS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1327, 28 August 1886, Page 3

MORE LIBELS.

It will be recollected that at the annual meeting of shareholders of the New Zealand Shipping Company, held in Christchurch some days ago, the chairman very forcibly refuted some gross misstatements made by a London paper, misnamed Pair Play , with regard to the operations of the Company ; and we are now pleased to notice that the Bjitish Australasian has very ably tajten up the cudgels on behalf of the management of this important enterprise. The British Australasian says : * The English shareholders ought to be able to attend a meeting of the Company. But that is no reason why such false statements as the following should be allowed to go unchallenged “The sailing ships,” we read, “ which comprise 18,400 tons, are mortgaged to the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency to secure £300,000, with interest at 8 per cent. They are, therefore, pledged at the rate of £l6 per ton. Of the steamers, one is mortgaged to the Bank of New Zealand for of which sum the odd £7500 was put on at the end of August, 1885 ; three are mortgaged to Mr William Pearce to secure sums due on account current with interest, and one stands clear in the Company’s name. The loan from the New Zealand Loan Agency would require £24,000 per annum.” With respect to this tissue of misstatements, the British Australasian says: —“ We can assure our contemporary that this ,£24,000 and this loan of £300,000 are entire delusions. It would seem that some time ago a mortgage for the sum named was formally executed in favor of the New Zealand Loan Company, who were to become trustees for a

proposed issue of debentures to a like amount. But this arrangement never came to anything, and as soon as the necessary legal formalities have been completed the trust-deed will be cancelled and the so-called mortgages discharged. This loan, therefore, about which we are told so much, amounts to very little. The New Zealand Shipping Company have a fine business, a capital Government contract, some first-rate ships, and in these hard times have continued to pay dividends. We should like to see the depreciation fund of larger than it is ; but that will come in time.” These statements, we understand, are made on the best possible authority, and it is only fair that they should receive the very fullest publicity. The Company has, according to the Directors, paid off a considerable portion of the cost of the steamers out of earnings during the past year, and has voluntarily waived a dividend which could easily have been declared put of profits, in order to pay off still more of the cost and to strengthen thf Company’s finance still further. This colony is largely indebted to the enterprise and tact of the New Zealand Shipping Company, and we are sure our readers will join us in wishing it the success it most eminently deserves.— Maik