The thirty-first ordinary general meeting ders was held at the Canuonon Wednesday, the 15th person in the chair. ring upon o me to say that we deeply lament cent sudden death of Mr. Heilyers, also the retirement of Mr. J. Kt. Pullen Smith, consequent upon his being appointed a member of the Indian Council, Both those gentlemen were very valuable mem-Board, and we feel sure you echo our sentiments with r gard to them. the now charter which we obtai We are now work in no important original charter. It is disappointing to have to relate the tale of depressed trade but, unfortunately, the past yoarhas proved even more disastrous than its predecessor, owing to various causes, notably the con tinued depreciation in' the value of important articles of eastern produce, entailing such heavy losses upon firms hitherto of good repute an 18 that several of them had to succumb. Java, previously 80 prosperous, erely through the unprecedented decline i 50 also did the rice ports, where likewise we have had for years very extensive and profitable bu: 3 and when so many of our customers had met with such unlooked-for disasters, it was scarcely to be expected that we should escape the effect of auch a state of things. The result of these mishaps, and consequent failures, I am sorry to say, has necessitated the trenching upon our reserve fund to the extent of £50,000, but a good deal of this is exceptional, and therefore not likely to occur again, nor perhaps will such adverse circumstances recur. Fortunately £200,000 still remain at the credit of the reserve fund. Referring to the balance-sheet, you will observe that the and therefore it may be well to m that a portion ai this increase cv ster! li ments. Our cash balance figures for the very am of 1} million, and is very much larger than it should be, but this was owing to the abnormal circumstances in our sphere of operations, Most of this money was at our agencies, where, during the Intter part of the year, there was difficulty in finding employment for it even at low rates of interest, and the rates of exchange happened to favourable for remittance home, whilst high rates of discount were ruling on this side. These adverse coincidences, I not tell yor have very materially diminished our yen profits. As regards the future, forecasts upon; everyone has his own opinion; it is said that the darkest hous la succeeded by the dawn, and, therefore, probably, the looked-for improvement may not be far uff. I can only say that when better times do come this bank will show the strength of its position, and its power to make the most of it. By the conclusion of pence between Franco and China, the dark cloud which shadowed the Far East for 10 past tirelve and many hope and believe that the px difficulties will also pass away when Russia recognises that
she will still have to encounter the forces if the deserts of Afghanistan Empire in the passes of the Hitnas myas, with the natives of India at our back, Ido not think there are any other points. in the balance-sheet I need remark upon, but I shall be glad to give any informa ti ich may. ed. I propose the fi elution; hat the report, the balan it, and profit and loss account be received and adopted.
Mr. Join Jones seconded the motion.
Me. J.B. Monaisow, in the course of some comments upon the report and anid the reserve fund had drawn upon to eke out the dividend, ing the capital and reserve fund tos the value of the shares should be higher th directors were pay, which was vote of the sharehold paid 16° per cent. divi suggested that it should be a; to its former amount, es; vacancy at the board were not filled up. Mr. Morrison also referred, a3 on many previous occasions, to the desirability of a short usance between this country and the East.
A Shareholder said he thought the moot ing was entitled to know something mor: about what the directors meant by exc Business had mo considerable time, and he should like to know what the oxceptional circumstances we The Cuarnaax—If the hon, proprietor would consider the enormous drop in the value of sugar, rice, silk, und tea, within course of last year, I think the cireumices muy be called exceptional. There matter, however, I might which will not occur again; in one case there wasa lack of judgment outhepart of one of our agents abroad and we lost some money through a firm with which we had had business for twenty years. It was a firm of high repute, and our Jocal manager gave them undue confidence, Hoe is no 1 rik I need not "the reduction in the note circulation was simply incidental; I believe at this moment it is quite as largo not more than, ever it was, With regard to Mr, Morrison's remark as to the vacant seat at the board, hope we shall be able to fill up the same in the usual way.
Mr. J, R. Monnisox—What about the directors' pay The Cuarustan—It is precisely the same an whau you shared it, and Iam not aware
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.