At the sixth annual general meeting of the shareholders in the above company Mr. OF, Duneanson, chairman of the company, spoke as followa Geutlemen,—ft is a matter of groat regret to us, that i ug you to-da we cannot present you with a more sati rt, for it would be idle to deny under circumstances of some discouragement, I would, however, ask you to bear with me fora few minutes in the remarks I have to make, for, though spoken to you, they are intended more for the benefit wf weehollere resident Shanghai. Phe step from the 4 per cent. dividend of lust year to the 1} por con now proposed by your directors is jeniably a backward step, but the report and accounts which have been for some days in your hands aff rd the best reasons id justification for the dividend proposed, Weshould have been pleased had the result of the past year's working been more satisfactory, but we have to deal with things as they are. It may, however, be us well to state—and Ido ao with a certain amount of miss seeing the compl were nade by some of the resident Shanghai as to the supplied them,—t! your derived material assistenco from that urce, while we have oily been very ightly helped by it this year, But at the sane time I should like to expllu that these fittings were provided at little more than the usual home cost to the different to the advantageous of our' burel here. For the we hare to look solely to the profi arising from our aupply of water, and that now represented by the regrettably modest dividend now recommended by the Board. But I would ask you to bear in mind some few facts which explain our position, Woe have two classes of customers in Shanghai, ud the Chinese, in proper: of the former to fifty of as [uow do, the pop Phe foreigners required but little pressing or inducement to apply to us, ard avon showed a healthy avail themselves of our ser-but I regret to say that in their financial relations with us—aud I hope they will forgive me for the allusion [am about to make, and.take the hint—they remind me of Mr. Oaiming's well known cou-plot with which ho reproached the statesmen of Holland "In matters of commerce, the fault of the Datel too little, and asking too much."
ers in Shanghai now luxuriate tiful supply of pure, bright water, undreamt of when I was a resident there; but I cannot congratulate them on the return they make the company for this precious boon, and cannot but say that their contributions towards our dividend are hardly worthy of their well-established reputation for liberality. Moderation la admirable virtue, but if they would only meet us (I hope they will pardon the reference) in ple spirit of concession which seems to come to them so naturally in the purchase of their tons and silks,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.