27 NOVEMBER 1852, Page 14

CONDUCT OF PUBLIC COMPANIES: THE MELBOURNE• LIE shareholders of the

Australian Royal Steam Navigation Company have followed the rule which we pointed out as desirable for public companies in looking after the conduct of their own en- terprise. It was time indeed that they should do so. The com- pany had obtained the Government mail-contract for Australia, with a special grant of 27,000/. annually. There is a magnificent field in passenger-traffic, which is continually widened ; and the prospects of the enterprise ought to have been excellent. By the most unlucky coincidence, the first three vessels sent out by the company have occasioned an unbroken series of complaints. The Australia was quick, but the passengers complained loudly of the crowding and total want of accommodation on board; the SydneY

was perhaps not more inconvenient, but was very slow; and the Melbourne broke down twice, resting for repairs in Plymouth, and finishing that voyage to Australia in the port of Lisbon.

At last, it would seem, the shareholders began to suspect that there must be something amiss. On Wednesday last they learned certain facts which had long been known to the public ; but parties most interested are generally the last to learn how their misfor- tunes happen. By dint of holding a public meeting, they have ascertained that the Melbourne had previously been an Admiralty steamer, called the Greenock; that it had cost Government 64,0001., and had been bought by the company for 42,0001.; and also they learned that, "on the authority of the most competent persons, the Melbourne had been pronounced thoroughly adequate,"—a useful piece of information as to the value of formal certificates. The shareholders are looking after their interest, and their interests are identical with those of the publics and passengers. Hitherto working emigrants have enjoyed protection in the official supervision, and the activity of Captain Lean ; whom we see at the Mansionhouse, protecting certain defrauded emigrants, on the same day with the meeting of shareholders. In this respect the hum- bler class has been far better off than those who have at last ob- tained the protective attention of the shareholders in the Austra- lian Royal Steam Navigation Company. Of course it would have been impossible for the shareholders in that company to expect any profit from their enterprise, or even a continuance of their enterprise, if they had continued that remarkable plan of carrying on voyages to Australia which has been exemplified by the three vessels which they have now sent out. But at last they have a fourth vessel, of which there are good reports ; and they are look- ing after their own business and directors. That "looking after" is the great safeguard of joint stock companies.