THE PREMIER PERMANENT BUILDING SOCIETY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 475, 28 May 1890, Page 3

THE PREMIER PERMANENT BUILDING SOCIETY.

CRIMINAL SUMMONS AGAINST THE DIRECTORS. RESIGNATION OF A VICTORIAN MINISTER. Auckland, May 22^ Ouk cablegrams yesterday stated that Mr Dow having insisted upon the acceptance of his resignation as a member of the Victorian Cabinet, owing to tho charges laid against him in connection with the Premier Permanent Building Society, Mr Gillies, the Premier of Victoria, has reluctantly consented to accept Mr Dow’s withdrawal from the Executive. The following telegrams explanatory of this trouble, appear in a recent issue of the Sydney “ Telegraph ” : Messrs Crisp, and Cameron, solicitors for the shareholders in the Premier Permanent Building Society, have sworn a criminal summons against the directors of the Society and others for conspiracy to defraud. The summons includes the names of J. L. Dow (Minister for Lands), John Nimmo (late Minister for Works), J. E. Gourlay, John Stewart, Thomas Fergussou, James Nirams, Phillip Corkhill, J. J. Murphy, and Robert Murphy. Gourlay was the owner of land at Elsternwick, which was sold to Murphy and Corkhill, and they obtained an advance from the Society. The other defendants are, or have been, officers of the Society. The first six named are also charged with illegally issuing shares. The following letter has been addressed by Mr J. L. Dow to the “Age,” “ Argus” and “Telegraph” with reference to the issue of a summons against him : Sir, —I am summoned to-night to appear on the 26th inst. to defend a charge of “ conspiring with others to deiraud the shareholders of the Premier Permanent Building Society.” If there has been such conspiracy, I wish to say by your permission lam wholly ignorant of it. I have not been a director for upwards of twelve months, but was at the dates given of the alleged conspiracy, and to that extent I am prepared to defend my share in the general transactions of the Society ; but as to conspiring to defraud or knowing of any conspiracy, or participating in any beneficial interest in any wrong way, I can only say most solemnly that I am guiltless. I must have been absent from the meetings where the alleged allotment of shares were made, as I have no knowledge of any such business having taken place, and certainly did not authorise any such allotment of shares to me nor did I receive any. As to the second charge of loaning the Society’s funds on land belonging to one of the directors and the pretended sale of such land to a dummy, if such has taken place I do not know it. At the examination I will freely give all the help I can to find out whether there has been foul play as alleged, and if so by whom.—Yours faithfully, John t L. Dow. .