BIG COMPANY SMASH.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 878, 26 July 1910, Page 7

BIG COMPANY SMASH.

LAW CUARANTEE SOCIETY. INQUIRY URGED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright London, July 24. Mr. T. Gibson Bowles, Liberal'M.P. for King's Lynn, is urging the intro-. duction in tho House of.Commons of a special Bill enabling the President of the Board of Trade, the Right Hon. Sydney Buxton, to order a public inquiry regarding the affairs of the Law Guarantee Trust and Accident Society, Limited. MANY PUBLIC MEN INVOLVED. The society decided to go into voluntary liquidation as a result. of sensational losses through ah unsound system of guaranteeing mortgages and debentures. The company is comparatively new, having been registered in 18SS with a capital of a million. Hatters looked so promising that a . few years later it was increased to two millions and a half, allotment being scrambled for by shrewd business men on the Bench, and at tho Bar. Only one. pound per. share was called up, tho first note of alarm being sounded when, a-short time ago, an additional £i per share was swept. into the company's coffers'. Now the remaining half of tho .£lO shares goes into the same bottomless sea, tho whole of the capital having.been lost. The final call of .£5 per share of the Law Guarantee Trust Society, though not unexpected, fell as a crushing blow upon the hapless shareholders. A peculiarity of tho 'situation, illustrating the confidence , placed in tho .concern, is ■ shown by the large ■ holdings of distinguished men. The Chief Lord Justice is interested to the extent of £20,000. Lord Beauchamp, sometime Governor of New South Wales, at present a member of his Majesty's Government, holds a similar nnmbei ol'sharta, vliilsi. Mr. Justice Grantham put in ,£30,000, every penny of which is forfeited. Sir Edward Clarke, ex-Attorney-General, was also. n. largo shareholder, and one p£ the directors testified to his belief in the soundness of the business hy holding stock amounting Ito «Efll,ooo. This also is swept away in the great debacle.