Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1894. UNFAITHFUL DIRECTORS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4717, 12 May 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1894. UNFAITHFUL DIRECTORS.

SECOND EDITION

The directors of the Loan and Mercantile when it went on the roots wero men of the highest character and position. One was an ex-Premier of New Zealand.nnother an ex -Governor, and a pair of them took still higher rank as past and present members of the Imperial Cabinet. And yet these men proved unfaithful to their trust, partly through carelessness, and party through cowardice. They, evaded a difficulty which they ought to have faced, and now they have to hear the penalty of their weakness by being compelled to face a much graver calamity. If men like them are not to be trusted an directors of a public company who are fit for tHe position? The lacks of these directors the very pick of the elite both in this Uolony and at home suggests distrust in all company enterprises both great and small, and engenders caution in placing too implicit a confidence in pny body of directors, After the public examination of the men in question, who can B_ay that any company is free from risk, or any directory spotehs. The misfortune ofthe Loan and Mercantile Company is not confined to its own shareholders, but allied and kindred companies also suffer aloss of prestige when it is shown how easily the apparently stoutest, strongest and most seaworthy vessel may gat into danger. The final result of the disaster may not be altogether unsatisfaotery. We can now expect to see the Company rehabilitated and speedily" resuming its career of undoubted usefulness in this colony, and we also anticipate that directors generally will take a much more serious view of their responsibilities in the future tlian they have in the past, With the < object lesson furnished by tho late examination the proudest director of. the proudest company must lose a certain amount of self-confidence and be sensible of the gravity of the position vi bich he holds. Itia only once in a generation. that catastrophes of this kind occur,, because it takes years to forgetthem, and a dread of a repetition restrains, men from speculative imprudences. "As far as New Zealand is 'concerned, the thunder cloud has burst, and we may. now look for settled finaniM weather,' In all financial oirolej there have been fears and apprehensions, but' these will now pnes away and public confidence in leading financial'institutions will be i ;

restored. That Mr Justice Williams m tbe affairs of the Loan and Mercantile probed the wound thor OUglily aiid effeotually is not altogether a matter of regret. The recovery of the Loan and Mercantile will be all the more speedy now that all doubts respecting it have been resolved.