HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News Record, 1913-11-27, Page 6lnt to The Clink)
(Contied. ) You mu understood :me. I meant
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"Who was the author of • their pro- by that remuneration for the work I
curing these rights ?" have done,and for which I have not
"I wasn't. yet received 'anything. I have a
"Wasn't the expense ' of their in- right to feel very badly for the way
corporation paid for by the rail- I have been treated in the matter."
wy ?" Hydro Blamed For Cessation.
"It wasn't," It was about the time the Hydro
Work Before Incorporation, came into the Seaforth district, wit
The construction company was in-
corporated on Sept. 12th, 1,908, but
work went on, witness added, before
the incorporation.
"By whose authority ?" Mr. Proud -
foot insisted.
' "Authority was given ;to me to
make the b''xpenditures, replied •Mr.'
Moyes. {'•There was a provisional
arrangement whereby work went on
prior to the completionof the act-
ual Contract."
'But on July 80th, 1908, you made"
a statutory declaration that there
was a contract for the construction
of the railroad. Who negotiated
with you as to the terms of that
contract?"
"I made various trips to Boston."
As to thepeople 4here. interested in
the Construction Company, Mr. Moy-
es named a Mr. °Cutts, : an engineer.
The agreement was drawn by Mr.
Smoke. The details were worked
out by Mr. Curtis and the Barrymore
interests. But as to who signed the
agreement, Mr. Moyes could not say.
Municipality Guaranteed $40,000.
"What was the Construction .Com-
pany to get ?"
"All the bonds, and a proportion of
the stock."
"Which amounted to $600,000. Now,
what amount of stock as well ?"
"I can't recall' that."
"Were the bonds handed over ?"
"They were, to the construction
company. The municipalities guar-
anteed $4i00,000.
The contract also called upon the
construction company . to hand over a
completed road from Goderich to
Kincardine. That has not been done
yet, and this forms the basis of the
municipalities' appeal to the railway,
ness continued, that the railway feor-
ed the; loss of their power in the
Maitland River; and the railway's
order ,to the Huron Construction
Company to stop operations did not
come until the situat.on bad been
thoroughly discussed.
"The breaking of the Hydro into
that zone stopped us. We made up
our minds that it was useless to go
on with the construction of the rail-
way until the power matter wasset-
tled. We offered, when the Hydro
first appeared, to lay down electric
power in Seaforth ; at $10 less h. p.
than the figures offered by the Hydro
and when we lost that we Saw it '
would be useless to go on and deve'
lop power from the Maitland River
to run the railway alone."
The, uselessness of proceeding with
the examination of Mr. John W.
Moyes without the production of the
minute books of the Ontario West
Shore Railway, and especially in
view of the state of his memory
with regard to the other papers
which could throw light upon the fi-
nancing and construction of that rail-
road, was pointed out to the mem-
bers of the Ontario Railway Board
immediately the third session opened.
"The most important point in this
whole hearing," continued Mr. Proud -
foot, who represented the municipali-
ties along the shore of Lake Huron,
"is to secure those papers. I got in
touch with Mr. Grayson Smith last
night. He is a member of the firm
with which the late Mr. S. C. Smoke
was connected. Mr. Moyes, you will
remember„ informed you yesterday
that he had handed all the papers
connected with the railway over to
Mr. Smoke at the time he resigned
Ail Funds Exhausted, Grayson -Smith volunteered to have a
Board. the presidency in June, 1913. Mr.
The construction company, .it was search made through- their office to
stated, exhausted all the funds from see if any of the papers .could be
the guaranteed bonds, and stopped found, He has informed mo this
construction •because of an order of morning that after 'several hours
the railway, who began to fear they search none were located. Me.
could not afford to develop their pow- Franklin Smoke, a brother of the
er from ilia Maitland River, for the late S. C. Smoke, I am informed, has
operation of their road •alone, on so- taken over the railway matters of
count col the extcns'on of the Hy- Mr. S. C.' Smoke, but he is now in
dro-Electric Owen Sound. In view of this it
As to this gradual exhaustion of mems that there can only be another
ilia funds, witness stated the bonds, delay."
were handed over to the construction "In view of the memory of Mr.
company, and they hypothicated them, Moyes," was , the reply of Chair-
As to the present holders of the man McIntyre of the Railway Boatd,
bonds, Mr. *Moyes believed he knew "we will have to get those papers."
where some were. - Another Search for Papers.
"I went to Mr. Proudfoot and of- "Mr. Grayson Smith has offered to
fered to have thein turned back to melee a more extended, search," eon -
the municipalities," witness added. tinned Mr. Proudfoot, The board
"Provided you were reembursed, asked that this search be conducted.
you should add," replied Mr. ;Proud- "Did you make another search
foot,
among those private papers last night, .1
Mr. Moyes ?" the chairman inquired.
The reply of Mr. Moyes was that.
he had gone through' his papers at
his private house last night but was
Inot able to find anything bearing
materially upon the construction or
financing of the enterprise. Mr.
'Proudfoot became slightly impatient
at thg delay, pointing out that the
only th'ng. left would' be to continue
with the hearing of other witnesses,
which proceeding' .Must necessarily
break upon the sequence of the in=
vestigation. Mr. Roberts, the en-
gineer of the railway, he declared,
was a very important witness, but he
could not tell anything further than
he has done up to the present until
those missing papers were placed be-
fore him.
"It was a very unfortunate thing"
he added, "that Mr. Moyes, having
received the subpoena as long ago as
the 7th, didnut let us know earlier
that he did not have the papers in
his possession. or that he did not ev
en tell us that he resigned his posi
tion as presidrnt of the road,"
".When, I met the representatives of
the municipalities up in Goderich they
were told of the resignation," Mr.
Moyes interupted.
"I was present at the meeting up
in Goderich," replied Mr. Proudfoot,
to the board. "I certainly did not un-
derstand that, Mr. Moyes had resign-
ed, and the representatives also, say
they did not understand anything of
the kind."
Mr• Maclwan's evidence.
As the chairman of the board order-
ed that the hearing proceed, Mr.
Proudfoot introduced Mr, Hugh J.
MacEwan, coal merchant of Goder-
ich.
Mr. MacEwan informed the hoard
that he was interested, as secretary
of the railway, prior to the appear-
ance of Mr, Moyes. He had no pos-
ition with the I3uron Construction
`ompany, but the power of at-
torney had been given him by Mr.
Moyes to sign the railway cheeks for
the payment of wages and material,
during the absence of Mr. Moyes
in 1909, and this arrangement was
continued after the return of the
president. As secretary of the West
Shore Railway, Mr, MacEwan added
that he , recieved his instructions
from Mr. Moyes. Many meetings
were held in the early part of h908,
the first being at Goderich.
Minutes in Legal Form.
The minutes, he believed, were
drawn up in legal form with addi-
tions in• the office of Mr. S. C.
Smoke. Messrs. R. S. Williams .and
Hugh Sinclair, Goderich, were nam-
ed by Mr. MacEwan as the two
other necessary members of incorpo-
ration, who were afterwards bought
out by Mr. Moyes. They started out
with ten shares each, while Mr. Moy-
es had 120. This left' as the man-
agement Messrs, Moyes, Smoke, and
the witness." '
"Where is that minute hook ?,' was
(Continued )