The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-15 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1867.

MEETING thy THE OVEREND AND GURNEY
CEEDITOR.4.-( THIS DAY.)

A meeting of the creditors of Oyerend, Gurney,
and Co. was held at the London Tavern, at 1 o'clock ; Mr.
OPPENHEIN In the chair. The meeting wax convened by
Mr. Oppenheim, through the medium of a circular
in which he stated that the feeling of the late meeting
was in favour of the second mode of settlement sub-
mitted by him, namely, that the creditors should give up
the interest on their claims in consideration of the princi.
pal being paid at agreed dates; viz., lls. (making 11..) in
the pound, by the 31st December, 1867, and the balance
of tic by the end of 1868.

The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, said—Gentle-
men, it is proper that I should remind you in the first in-
stance that this is the first meeting of creditors of
Overend, Gurney, and Co. (Limited), since the stoppage.
The matters to be submitted to you for your consider*,
tion to-day are of serious importance, and I trust that
we shall all be able to bring to the consideration of them
calm and impartial minds, and that we shall not be in.
duenced by feeling or prejudice, but be able to bring a
good judgment to bear upon all matters to be brought
before us. We have all but one object in view, namely,
to consider the best mode of ensuring payment of our
claims on the estate in the shortest possible time.
As you are doubtless aware, the affairs of this
important liquidation have been committed by the
subscribers to the care of two gentlemen of high standing
in their profession, Mr. Turquand and Mr. Harding, aided
by a committee of supervision, of whom I am one, having
been nominated specially to represent the creditors, and I
have given to the affairs of the liquidation my constant
and at times almost unremitting attention since my
appointment. I assure you if I had had the faintest
notion of the labour, anxiety, and difficulties connected
with the office, I should have declined to accept it. It
has, I assure you, been no easy task up to this time, and
although we have overcome many of our difficulties, I do
not anticipate the future will be free from difficulties.
I will in the first instance shortly explain to you
the present position of the matter, and I will then offer
you such suggestions as occur to me as to the proper course
to be adopted in the future. You have all no doubt seen
the statement of affairs issued by the liquidators. I con-
Eider it a fair and honest statement, and I think we are all
indebted to the liquidators fur bestowing the care and at-
tention which they did to make it correct and reliable, but
on the other hand it would be useless disguising from you
the fact that many of the assets will take a long time to
realise, and that serious sacrifices would inevitably result
from any forced realisation. The best opinion I can
form is, that we may reasonably expect to receive
during this year a further dividend of tie. in the pound,
payable, probably, as follows :-2s. at once ; 4s. before the
rising of the court, about July or August. As regards the
subsequent realisations from the assets, it is impossible
to speak with any confidence ; so much depends upon the
revival of confidence, which is now, as you all know,
no doubt, to your cost, so thoroughly shaken, that
it is almost impossible to realise securities of the class
comprised in these assets. But we all hope that
things will revive before long. It is a lung lane
in which there is no turning, If we are to judge by past
experience there will, however, be a strong and rapid re-
vival both of confidence and enterprise, and assets now
difficult, if not incapable of realisation, might then become
speedily productive. It is impossible to go into the details
as to what the assets consist of, it would be difficult to
make particulars intelligible to a meeting like the present,
but there is a still more serious objection—namely,
that it would hamper the liquidators in their
arduous duties if the particulars of the various
securities in their bands were noised about. From the
assets alone, therefore, it is impossible to reckon with con-
fidence as to the time within which our full claims can be
liquidated. We now turn to the question of calls. We
have, as is pretty generally known, a very good list of
shareholders, and I have no doubt that with prudence and
judgment a sufficient amount will be realised by calls on
the shareholders to make up every deficiency in the
assets in order to pay to the creditors the full
amount of their claims with interest, and I
believe further, although it would be unfair to
ask the creditors to wait for results of reali-
sation of assets, yet that the shareholders will in time
recover back from the assets anything further which they
may have to pay in respect of further calls, and trust also
that if commercial confidence should recover, the assets
will realise well. I see no reason to doubt that the
creditors will, by giving reasonable time, obtain payment
of the whole amount of their claim of 20s. in the pound
and interest. It is all a question of time, and if the
question of concession is at all entertained by the cre-
ditors, it would solely, in my judgment, be with reference
to that point—Time. I will now explain to you as concisely
as I can the present position of the matter. Let us con-
sider what is the best policy to be adopted in the future,
in order best to promote the creditors interest. lam not
for making great sacrifices in the realisation of the remain.
ing assets, as would have to be the case if we attempted to
realise sonic of them now. My notion is that the liqui-
dators should go on quietly and patiently realising the
assets without undue sacrifices, and thus get together as
much money as they can during the present year towards
further dividends. Then as to calls. lam not an advo-
cate for further heavy calla. I don't think it will be neces-
sary, and all experience shows that heavy calls are not
always the meet productive, but I think that the share-
holders should be prepared to meet a further call in the
course of two or three months. They will serve their own
Interests thereby because unquestionably, as I have
already explained, the meets will improve, or rather
great sacrifices will be avoided by keeping them
for a time. If this programme be carried out in good faith
on both sides I honestly believe that by the end of this
year the whole aspect of our affairs would be changed for
the better, and I hope the shareholders and creditors
would look more cheerfully on the prospects of the estate.
In that case I should propose to call you together again
about that time to consider further the course to be
adopted. I believe by that time we should be
able to fix upon some early date for the liquidation
of the balance of the creditors' claims with interest.
This, gentlemen, is the substance of what I have to report
and suggest to you, both as to the present and the future.
I My statement, however, will not be complete without
referring to two or three matters which have from
time to time come under your notice. In the first
place I would allude to the proceedings of what
is called " the Defence Association." I should
be very sorry to say one word to-day which should
cause pain to any gentleman who may be ac-
tuated by what be conceives to be honourabe motives,
but I must say I cannot sympathise with the principles
which actuate those who repudiate their liability as share-
holders in this oompany. I have, as most of you have ob-
served by the reports of the proceedings in the law courts,
appeared by my counsel in all the important proceedings
connected with the attempt of certain of the shareholders
to get relieved from their liability, and I rejoice that the
Vice-Chancellor has by his judgment upheld principles of
such vital importance, and which I have no doubt will
be confirmed by the Court of Appeal. So long as these
repudiating shareholders continue the litigation, we, that
is, the liquidators and myself, have only one duty to per-
form, namely, to defeat the proceedings, and we have no
anxiety as to the result. I don't think I need further
allude to that subject. I will now allude to the two cir-
culars addressed to you ,• one by myself, as convening this
meeting, and which we have taken as read, and the other
issued the last two or three days by my colleagues in
the committee of supervision, Messrs. Kingscote and
Grissell. Mr. Kingscote, I should mention, is a
shareholder only. Mr. Gemmell is both a shareholder and
creditor. With reference to my own circular I am for
peace where it can be obtained without undue sacrifice,
but while I adhere to what I stated in my circular as to
my own willingness to submit to an individual sacrifice for
the sake of peace, I am not here to make any proposal to
the shareholders. I consider it is the duty of the debtors
to make proposals to their creditors, and as no disposition
has been shown to suspend litigation (on the contrary
within the last few days), the Defence Association have
presented a petition of appeal to the House of Lords, and
have been making fresh application to the Vice-Chancellor,
I consider that there is only one dignified course for us to
pursue, namely, to insist upon our strict rights, and I
might say, by way of justification, that in entertaining an
idea of submitting to a sacrifice of the interest, I was in-
fluenced mainly by a desire to stop litigation, and thereby
protect that large and influential body of share-
holders who have come forward honourably and
properly to meet their engagements, and who cer-
tainly are not disposed to avail themselves of the
defence set up by the repudiating shareholders. Even if
that were open to them, I think some consideration is due
to men in that position, more especially when we remem- I
ber the mischief and loss which have ensued and may yet
ensue. Realisation of stock assets under liquidation is,. I
consider, always a greet disadvantage, as has been shown is
the same of the Agra Bank and other institutions. The
value of assets improves immensely when anything like a
prospect appear' of affairs being taken out of liquidation,
either by resuscitation or by parties agreeing to bold
over the assets for a time or otherwise ; and if this be the
fact of even a friendly liquidation, how much more is
it the case when that liquidation is hampered by litiga-
tion such as has beset this unfortunate estate from
the commencement to the present time, and which is
likely to continue unless wiser counsel should prevail. I
win now refer to the suggestion contained in the circular
of my colleagues, Messrs. Kingscote and Grissell, namely,
that creditors should consent to release all shareholders
who will consent to pay a further call per share at an
early date, those shareholders still to be entitled
to any surplus assets in the ultimate winding up. I
should be sorry to throw cold water on any
attempt to lessen the time and consequent evils
of this litigation. I am sorry I cannot see my
way to recommend the creditors to agree to the pro-
peed of Messrs. Kingscote and Grissell. I am sure they
have honestly made their proposal with a sincere desire to
stop litigation and to give an inducement to all share-
holders, both those who have paid and those who are still
holding out to corns in and voluntarily seek a release from