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In this balance sheet signed by me the actual items are set out with great clarity. Issued capital is distinguished from subscribed capital. Authorised capital is set out, the share calls outstanding are set out, as to whether they are uncalled, on allotment, or what they were; the sundry debtors in this balance sheet include no items which should not be there and the items set out are clearly showing their relative value.
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This balance sheet was submitted to a directors meeting and was approved and passed unanimously as being the balance sheet for the firm for the period ending 30th April, 1928.
At the next meeting a printed balance sheet was submitted to the meeting. I was not at that meeting as the records show.
This balance sheet is not identical with the balance sheet I signed. The alteration was done without my knowledge nor in my presence, nor while I was actively engaged in the business of the firm.
Mrs. Instone Brewer who was in charge during my absence was fully aware that the auditor had been requested by me to draft the original balance sheet, and in consequence, permitted the auditor to make the alterations in the balance sheet as printed, but compelled him to sign the printed proof, the original proof of the printing he was
required to sign as showing that the alterations were made on his own authority and none other. That original printed proof has been produced in evidence. It is signed by one man only, and that man the auditor. That printed proof is the same as this balance sheet. The balance sheet which I signed is not the same and it is significant that the
features to which the greatest exception has been taken are the very features in which the balance sheet which I signed differs from the printed balance sheet.
During my absence this balance sheet was submitted to the general meeting of the shareholders. It had passed the directors in my absence. During my absence the other was printed and sent out to the shareholders in compliance with the Ordinance, submitted to them at a general meeting - at which general meeting I was not oresent, but at which general meeting the shareholders approved the printed balance sheet which was accordingly distributed to such persons as we had
intended sending our balance sheet to so that before I had become aware in any way that my balance sheet had been significantly altered, before I saw this printed sheet - it had already received its maximum publication.
After that this printed balance sheet received no further publication, save the one copy which I filed in accordance with the requirements of the Ordinance.
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It is
Now, here again I say I was faced with a discretion. not a question of my deciding to issue a misleading balance sheet. It was a question of decision here whether I was justified in recalling this balance sheet, or was I justified in letting it stand. It is a matter on which honest Englishmen might well disagree, because it is a discretionary matter. The balance sheet had already been issued. My personal interest lay in the withdrawal of the balance sheet.
I had mentioned before that there was at or about this time an attempt to acquire shares of the Instone Bank by a syndicate who were acting under the belief that my statement
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