Inside the Meeting

'Fine' I thought as I walked into Trillo's and admired the thick carpet and the chandeliers and the top of the table decorously draped in green. 'Wonderful' I thought as I watched the masses of ordinary shareholders walking in and taking their places, about 400 in all. 'Excellent' I thought, 'How the bloody hell are we going to manage to do anything! Talk about an intimidating place.'

Mr Ross the Chairman of the Board stood up and welcomed us to the AGM, "You're welcome to it too," I mused still gripped in a paralysis of fear. Suddenly this large bloke with an enormous voice yelled out 'Why are we here?' and the chant broke out all over the meeting. To say that the ordinary shareholders and the top table were suprised would be as much an understatement as commenting that the pope is mildly religious.

What followed next will probably go down in corporate history. People went and stood at the foot of the top table holding banners and placards about NZI's involvement in South Africa, radios were turned on at the call of 'Hauraki', whistles were blown, songs were sung, rattles were rattled. During the reading of the auditor's letter, which was conveniently placed in the annual report, we read along with the secretary of the meeting, always at least one second in front or behind him.

There were countless calls of 'point of order'. The Chairman said we could call him anything [unclear: w] we wanted. A poll, a type of ballot, was called for on every conceivable opportunity. As a poll involves handing round specially printed pieces of paper, checking peoples' share numbers and then counting them up, this of course took up some considerable time.