SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. The Hastings Standard Published Daily. THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1897. COMPANY CROOKEDNESS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 280, 25 March 1897, Page 2

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1897. COMPANY CROOKEDNESS.

PORT OF NAPIER. HIGH WATER SLACK THIS DAY Outer Harbour ... ... p.m. 11.10 Inner Harbour ... ... p.m. 12.40 Ap.riyals. March 24—Silver Cloud, barquentine, from Newcastle. J. and W. l'rebble, agents. March 2-3—Tasmania, s.s., from Sydney via Northern ports. Cranby and Co., agents. Depart cues. March 2.3—Tasmania, s.s., for Southern ports. Cranby and Co., agents. Expected Arrivals. Rotomahana, s.s., from Southern ports, March 26. Dingadee, s.s., from Wellington, March 26. Flora, s.s., from Southern ports, March 30. Projected Depap.titres. Rotomahana. s.s.. for Northern ports and Sydney, March 26. Dingadee, s.s., for Gisborne and Auck'and, March 26. Flora, s.s., for Gisborne and Auckland, March" 30. The barquentine Silver Cloud arrived from Newcastle yesterday morning with a cargo of coal The s.s. Tasmania arrived from Sydney via Gisborne and Auckland this morning, and left for Southern ports this afternoon. The s.s. Kotomahana is due to-morrow morning from Southern ports, and leaves for Northern ports and Sydney a; 7 p.m.

For the cause that acks assistance," For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Thk impotency of the Companies Act to bring to justice those who gambleand gamble with disastrous results, with the funds of confiding shareholders has been demonstrated most forcibly not only 111 this colony but also in other parts of the British Empire. The joint-stock system has been sweated out of all semblance of honesty, and it is not therefore surprising that efforts should be made to restore a decaying system, which if honestly applied is calculated to do an immense amount of good. The jointstock system, notwithstanding the villany of promoters, directors, managers and auditors, has come to .stay, for it must be confessed that •without enterprise of this character, it would be impossible to establish many industries. In this colony the work for joint-stock enterprise is just beginning, and our industrial progress will lie stayed if from any cause whatever the system becomes discredited anil people become timid of pooling their capital to exploit a legitimate venture. We shall certainly kill it is already scorched joint-stock enterprise in New Zealand ii we do not insist upon an amendment of our some what elastic Companies Act. It in a subject, however, that is always distasteful to Parliament, for few men in our Hons., of Representatives can claim anything more than a speaking acquaintance with the techni ealities involved in so intricate a matter. This is probably the reason why tiie present cumbrous and ineffec tive measure is allowed to e\ist. There are always faddists enough in Parliament to take up with state-banks, paper currency and cognate subjects, but the more pressing reforms of com patiy law have no There ii no doubt itmeh datij/. r in enlarging the \illume of eninp.iiiv law, for it is always liable to th> drawback from which all o\er refined legislatio 1 sutlers, that with the nniltipheatkm of minute provisions, ofter obscuring and surroninling broard principles, the astute and unscrupulous are the Utu-r able to wvad* tiv real int«atiyß#

of the Act, and events make it sanction practices which would otherwise be punishable. The fact is that company law owing to its complexity and excess of detail is utilised by the company marauders for the legislation of fraud. The penal portion of company legislation is invariably rendered inefficacious by faulty machinery, so that even where fraud is visible to the untutored eye, the perpetrators go scot free. The worthlessness of our company law was never more clearlyshown than now. Unblushing fraud has been exposed, but the guilty ones cannot be brought to justice except by expensive and ponderous methods, and even then the initiative is left to private individuals. If a man is robbed of a coat or a hat, he can instantly secure the services of the police, and he is relieved of any expense in bringing the offender to justice; but let the same man be robbed of hundreds of pounds—it may be of his life's savings, under cover of the Companies Act, and innumerable obstacles are placed in the way of obtaining any means of redress. Few men when so fleeced have the energy or the means to enter upon prolonged and expensive litigation, and even where the individual is desirous of prosecuting it often happens that the company swindlers are able to invoke the assistance of powerful friends to bring pressure to bear and so turn away the wrath of the individual. Why should insolvent companies be treated any differently to insolvent individuals ? and yet while the trading classes have year after year pressed for and obtained a stringent Bankruptcy Court, no effort has been made to bring about reforms in company law. Under our bankruptcy law the Official Assignee has wide powers, but the most effective feature of the Bankruptcy Act, is the public examination. This is an ordeal that few people care to face, apart altogether from the possibilities that such procedure involves, and it is this that has helped in a great measure to cleanse the character of the Bankruptcy Court. The public examination of bankrupts has bricked up many of the loop holes which were formerly used by athletic brained thieves to escape from justice. In our company law all this is neglected, and a public examination of the officials is only possible by tedious and expensive processes of law. The Inspector-General of companies in liquidation under the British Board of Trade attaches far more importance to publicity than to the penal clauses. He maintains, and very rightly, that by publicity the public attention is aroused and public opinion formed ; a beneficial influence is exercised in favor of the growth of a higher tone of commercial morality and irregular practices in financial circles are discouraged. " Nothing," says the InspectorGeneral, " has conduced more to these results than the object lessons afforded by the public examinations conducted in open Court under the supervision of able and experienced judges, and the still wider publicity afforded by the publication of these examinations in the Press."- Here, then, is the opinion of an expert and it would be well if it could be drummed into the heads of our august legislators. The principle that insolvents should be publicly examined in open Court should be applied to companies as well as to the individual trader, and we trust, for the future of the joint-stock system, that an amendment of the company laws in this important particular, will be speedily made. The interests of the public demand such a reform.