The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1884. THE WELLINGTON WOOLLEN COMPANY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1598, 1 February 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1884. THE WELLINGTON WOOLLEN COMPANY.

—: » .. We understand that some holders' of shares in the -Wellington Woollen Manufacturing Company, have been offering to give away their shares .to-. I 1 anyone who will take them. How , has.this come about 1 , In our issue of ' January 3rd, we wrote as follows: '•: ''Before shareholders in the Waivavapa give their proxies to these/appeals, , they should be informed (l)'wbatgame , the' brokers are playing:. (2) whether • .the Provisional Directors are playing V my game,- Will tlie Wellington Press : which is angularly or perhaps ':' judiciously silent, help to clear up the :. mystery, or is it mixed up in the : *' little game" which' is being played," j' At that time we smelt brimstone in [ the atmosphere, but we were not in i the secrets of the ring, We know now ' the game the brokers were playing, and | np doubt our Wellington contem- , pbraries knew it then, but they-were, i aß>we at the time remarked, judiciously , silent, It was objected; to .the Pro- :: visional Directors that they ;hadin : the ; ;deed of made-a nice little ; provision for themselves,.; '. but'.this was, comparatively speaking, a trifling matter. They displayed an . #idehfintention- to, conduct the affairs, of the Company prudently; and make'

it a commercial success, The real game was played by the brokers, They issued a delusive circular, and managed to get a sufficient number 'of proxies in their hands to elect their own directorate. They put in the Hon. the Speaker of the Legislative Council, two or three farmers,' a Hutt storekeeper, 'a Wellington auctioneer, and a Wellington merchant. The last indicated it is said will not act, and practically but one business man officers the directory, But is it not strange to see shares falling to zero, when on the ,uew directory appears a magnificent sim like Sir William Etzherbbrt . ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, ex-Colonial Treasurer,: exCommissioner of. Customs, ex-Crown Lands Commissioner, ox-Minister of Immigration, Chief State Pensioner of New Zealand, and Heaven knows what else. With a splendid mandarin like this on the Directory, surely'the shares ought to have gone' up rather than down ie the market. If the Speaker of the Legislative Council cannot buoy up a Wellington Woollen Company, what hope is there of our commercial enterprises? Of course the farmers and the Hutt storeman-are merely the leaden casket which holds the bright jewel of knighthood, and we do not expect, them to do much for the Company; beyond perhaps selling it a site, but we did expect tlwt the acquisition of the President of the Legislative Council would have put the shares, at »a; .'premium. There are, however, mysteries about the way in which Welling?' ton Companies are managed, whiolut would be presumptuous to investigate. The Wellington Press closes its eyes and shuts its ears to them, the Chamber' of Commerce does not reveal them, "Teilit not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askelon," We despair of Wellington Companies when a Hutt nobleman, the chief of our colonial lords, fails to exalt one of them. If more Companies are launched in Wellington, we fancy thei;e. will be a difficulty in inducing Waira-' rapa residents to take shares in them: Of course it is a great honor for them to be represented by the Speaker of the Legislative Council, but this alone will not satisfy them as a return for the money which they invest,