The directors' report to the meeting on the 9th inst. state:
The net surplus for the year, including, £5,184 brought forward, amounts to £182,918, which, after deducting the interim dividends, admits of "farther payment of 2 por cent. on the preferred and 64 per cent. on the deferred stock, making 10 per cent. for the balanew of £8,918 will be carried Fleet: The Bokhara Loss.—At the date of the last report four steamers were in course of being constructed for the Company's service, all of which have now been completed and delivered. The two large mail and passenger steamers, the Himalaya und Austratia, are at, present engaged on their first voy ages, the former to India and the latter to Australia, The Java, more essentially a cargo vessel, ix prosecuting her firs voyage to Bombay and China, and her sister ship, the Manila, will be despatched in the same direction almost immediately.
It is with feelings of the deepest sorrow that the directors have to allude to the loss of the Bokhara in the China Sea, on October Oth. of which the proprietors must have already learned the particulars through the medium of the Press. While on a voyage from Shanghai to Hongkong, the vessel encountered a terrific cyclone, against which she made headway satisfactorily for many hours, until at length her decks were swept by a succession of tremendous seas, which forced their way below and extinguished the fires. The ship was thus rendered temporarily helpless, It was while she was in this situa: tion, und at the moment that the engineers were engaged in relighting the fires, that she struck upon a rock in the Formosa Channel (towards which she had been driven out of her proper course by the extreme force of the storm) and almost instantly sank in deep water. It is impossible to speak too highly of the manner in which every one behaved under circumstances appalling even to the bravest, but the result of such an instantaneous shipwreck was the loss of many valuable lives. In the commander, Captain Sams, who was drawned, the company have lost one of the most capable of their younger officers, and it is due to his memory, and to the memory of all who perished, to say that everything that it was possible to do was done, under circumstances where human aid or courage could Lo of little or no The circumstances under which a rge of £13,791 appears to the debit of the 'Account for loss incurred through frauds by the company's Jate agent at Hongkong were fully explained in the last report, and it is not necessary, therefore, to recapitulate. them. The balance' of this account is temporarily diminished to £87,208.
General Remarks.—The unsatisfactory state of the shipping trade is a matter of common knowledge, and the directors regret that they are unable to point to any improvement in connection with this industry, either daring the last six months or qt the present
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.