Correspondence.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1249, 5 February 1886, Page 2

Correspondence.

W® do not hoi J ourselvesrcsponaiblc for tho opinions .expressed by our correspondents.

WHITE’S KEEP CO.J TO THE EDITOR.

Sir —In reply to remarks that appeared in the last issue of your paper re While’s Reef Co., I have no intention of defending the Directors of the said Company, as I do not consider the columns of a newspaper the fit place for such a discussion. 1 am actuated solely by a desire to relieve tho minds of any shareholder who may hive read the paragraph in question by assuring them that the whole of the statements contained therein are. to use a mild expression, incorrect. Mr M'Queen’s workmen hive not been kept idle through the neglect of the Directors, and as to tho contract price for erection of battery being LIOO too high, what does your veracious anonymous correspondent know as to the terms of said contract; and what quantity of material has to be supplied by the contractors? I must add, Sir, that before penning such a paragraph, and disturbing tho minds of shareholders, you might have acted up to your motto, and at ve y little trouble to yourself, ■ have ascertained from Mr McQueen’s representative the, shall I say, “incorrectness” of your correspondent's statements.—l am, etc., War. Fraser. Clyde, February Ist, ISS6, [We cannot hut think Mr Fraser is not only wanting in his usual courtesy, hut somewhat rash—to sneak plainly in giving the he direct. Mr Fraser would infer that we are responsible for the statements con • tained iu tho paragraph under notice. To. this we object, we merely selected from a somewhat iengthty letter the statements or opinions given. However, regarding tho contract price for the erection of the battery any misunderstanding on that point is entirely due to the Directors’ half yearly report, which states have purchased the Lucknow battery of live heads, for L 1 'JO, and have entered iuto a contract for its erection with Messrs Kincaid; M'Qneen, and Co., for the sum of L 324.” We accordingly hold our correspondent blameless on that score. If the Directors, when reporting to their shareholders speak in vague and indefinite laa- | guaue, they must expect to ho misnnrler* * stood. It could only ho those behind the scenes to knew that the L 324 was not for the bare erection of the battery, Init the erection of a complete and perfect battery the contractors to supply or repair at their own cost any of the parts that maybe missing or broken, besides supplying a hundred feet or so extia turbine pipes, and moreover to start the machine to work and keep it working for a week at their own cost We anything but regret this controversy, us it fhraa that the Directors havo bee i true to the int rests of the shireholders, ami have made a really good bargain, at the same time It shows that, the shareholders, or some of them, are alive to their interests.— Ed. D.T.]