THE N.Z.S.S. COMPANY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5541, 31 December 1878, Page 2

THE N.Z.S.S. COMPANY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sie,—l perceive with regret the New Zealand Steam Shipping Company is to be wound up. The liability of the company, stated at £38,000, includes £17,000 shareholders' papital, but none of the shareholders expect to get more than £i or £5 for his £lO share, the company having divided £26,000 of Union Steamship Company's stock when thaN.Z.S.S. Company sold the Wellington, Taranakl, Ladybird, and Phoabe to the former company. This is what the directors probably refer to when they speak -of the " anomalous position in which the company is placed."! Of course, having divided £26,000, they cannot expect the stock to be other than nominal with but four small boats—the Kangatira, Mauawatu, Jane Douglas, and Stormbird. After the sale to the Union Company the words " limited and reduced" ought to have been added to the style of the company, with a reduction'of the shares from £lO to £5, to correspond with the I diminished assets. The Union Company is practically a Dunedin company, and everything required that can be bought in Dunedin is purchased there, Wellington is running a race with Dunedin for commercial supremacy,and the winding-up of the New Zealand Shipjping Company will be a nail in Wellington's coffin. Tho late Hon. W. B. Rhodes advoI cated some time ago the winding-up of the company, but a small shareholder (the writer) got the resolution rescinded, and he now tells jthe mercantile community they will bitterly I regret it if they allow the local company to come to grief. The remedy is to reconstitute the company, with new blood in the directory ; the present shareholders to surrender their £lO shares for £1 shares, the steamers ECuia and Tui to be invited to join on equitable terms, and a couple of now steamers purchased (of --bliTr- J trat faofcar au& better built). It is absurd to expect the directors to earn a dividend on £lO shares when more than all the capital was returned to the shareholders, and therefore to continue calling the company's oapital at £17,000 only misleads the public. The wholesale traders of Wellington are interested in the matter, and if the four small boats get a new domicile they will richly deserve the reward of their apathy, —I am, &c, Gbzt-itbebt.