Tie Proposed Bank Amalgamation.

Manawatu Herald, 28 September 1895, Page 2

Tie Proposed Bank Amalgamation.

At the Colonial Bank meeting ■it. Dunedin, the Hon. George McLean, chairman, referred &* fol-« l>w^ to the banking negotiations : — Phe^e negotiation^, for reasons e%ohined at. the time, we felt it n 'ces*ary in the interests of share holders to break if. If the coodirioae* on which this bank then insisted had b<*en agreed to, the dim* culties which were dealt with during the. present session would have been avoided. Both parties during the ptaent negotiations have, I believe, been anxious to come a fair and equitable arrangement, bat no arrangement has been arrived at. It u not at present desirable that the details of these negotiations shonld be made pablic. The provisions of t.bj Jl6\ of this* session have so far prtvehtwl such an agreement beinf come to between the two banks as in yoor in£er«stfl we could have •fceWto. WW«t Hjt 4irtct«rfl fif

this Bank ana of the Bank of New Zealand may enter into a preliminary contract for sale and purchase, the validity of such contract rests on ratification by the shareholders. Whatever the directors may agi?ee to" itl the meantime will be ofno. validity unless approved by the. shareholders* The meeting Was adjourned utttii 80oh October* when the airetttdrfl" will recommend a definite course* After the motion to adjourn the meeting had been seconded, Mr J. Bain (Invercargill) said that the shareholders whom he represented had no objection to a sale 10 long as it Was a sale for cash, clear of any farther liability. They had no objection — many of them, at any rate to such a sale. His own opinion Was that the Bank should go on." It. was important for the shareholders to know the conditions and the tertna on which the sale and transfer weir to be made* Mr Laing read the clause of the Act which authorises th« sale, and was about to explain what had been done at a meeting at Invercargill when a point of order was raised. After some further remarks, the chairman said that, before putting the motion, he should like to disabuse the minds of the shareholders of the motion that there was to be anything else than a sale for oaeh. There was no other questions at all. tt was a question of purchase and for cash. He had allowed Mr Bain some latitude, and that gentleman had read to the meeting the terms of the Act. It was these very terms that had prevented the two sets of directors from coming to an agreement, and they muet be altered if they were to come to terms. The chairman added that as regards the emergency meeting there was no idea of the directors stealing a march upon the shareholders. The shareholders : were going to have a deliberate vote ; there was no need to be afraid of that.

The motion was then carried unanimously.