WINDING-UP ORDER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20002, 29 July 1939, Page 7

WINDING-UP ORDER

BREWERY COMPANY FIRM NEVER OPERATED JUDGE SUGGESTS INQUIRY AFFAIRS OF CONCERN (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. “It seems a very undesirable state of affairs that a company should be launched in this way, apparently without hope of success and the money subscribed by a large number of the public lost,” commented Mr. Justice Fair, in the Supreme Court to-day when a brewing company, Viking Lager Limited, which never brewed a gallon of lager despite the fact that over £20,000 had been subscribed by the public, was the subject of a wind-ing-up petition by the Union Bank.

Mr. Hubble said there was no opposition to the petition. He said the company was incorporated in July. 1932. It had acquired a site and a brewer’s license. There had been no attempt to commence the building and no brewing was carried out. About 69,000 shares were offered at £1 each and over £20,000 had been collected. Owing to the costs of formal business and selling the shares, there apparently was nothing left to enable the company to function as a brewing company. Advance From Bank An advance was obtained from the bank in 1933 and that was the basis of the present petition. The amount then was about £IBOO. Despite all the efforts of the receiver to collect the calls to meet the debt, there remained a sum of £587 unpaid.

In reply to His Honour, Mr. Hubble said the sole assets were land in an Auckland suburb which was not worth much and a brewer s license which was renewed annually. “It may be a matter for consideration by the legislature, said His Honour, “whether there should not be some official appointed whose duty it should be to inquire into the incorporation and methods in which the capital of a company, which fails in this way, has been raised and spent. The court itself has no power to ask for such an inquiry and the initiative rests at present upon the shareholders.

“Thus, for the reason stated, rather than incur a considerable amount of further expense in the conduct of an inquiry, the shareholders are content to make the best of a bad job and let the matter go. That seems an undesirable thing so far as a is concerned whose affairs from the inception have been mismanaged. I do not say that it is necessarily the case with this company, but on the face of things, it appears that its affairs do require some investigation and some explanation.” His Honour made an order to wind up the company and decided that the costs of the application be paid by the company.