2nd April Axmost exactly thirty years ago—it was in June, 1866,—a meeting of the shareholders of the Shanghai Gas Company was held, with Mr. A. @. How in the chair, to decide how the collapse of the company could be avoided. The company started with a capital of I's. 100,000. In 1864 it was decided to issue a farther sum of 'I'ls. 50,000, but only 224 shares, representing Ils, 92,400, were taken up. In February, 1865, the Directors were authorised to borrow the sum of 'I's, 27,600 on the unallotted 276 shares, and in October of the same year they were authorised to raise a farther sum of 'I's, 15,000 in order to carry on the work of the company. Of these two sums, aggregating Is, 42,600, the Dirrctors succeeded in borrowing 'I's, 33,000 from the Chartered Mersantile Bank on the security of a promissory note signed by themselves and the deposit of the title deeds of the property of the company. In June, 1866, the Bank were threatening, to sell the company up, and the meeting was called to receive a report on the situation, from which the above facts are taken, from a committee of shareholders, consisting of Messrs. A. G. How, B. Whittall, W. Hargreaves, A. A, Hayes, jr., and Behre. It was mentioned that the company was making a net profit of $800 a month, or $3,600 a year, on a capital of N's, 122,400; no other Bank would take over the loan, it was hopeless to try and issue preference shares, and unless the shareholders would consent to call of Ts. 30a share, the company must be sold up. It was decided to take the advice of Mr. Lawrance and Mr. Myburgh as to the legality of a call of Tis, 80 per share (the company being unlimited), "such call to be a first lien on the capital stock of the company, and to be repaid with interest at 10 per cent per anni by instalments out of the profits, prior to the dist tion of any dividend." At an adj meeting held in July, 1866, Mr. C. J. King, the only remaining director, in the chair, it was shown that the company owed altogether 'I's. 50,000 and had only 'I'ls, 9,000 in hand, and the lawyers consulted reported that there was no authority to make a call, The Bank insisted on the loan of Tls. 33,000 being paid off on the Ist of August, and the only expedient was for the shareholders to take up debentures at 12 per cent, and a sum of 'I's. 6,100 was subscribed in the room. 'I'he shareholders rallied bravely, the chairman showing them that their gas was only costing them $8.50 a thousand feet to make and was being sold at $4.50, a contract was nade with the Municipal Council for the lighting of the settlement, and it soon began career of prosperity, as the report for 1895 which we published last week shows.
he net: profit for the year has grown from $3,600 to 'I's. 37,341, although the price of gas is little more than half what it was in 1866, Instead of a deficit of Tls. 41,000 there is a reserve fand of 'T's. 100,000, although for years a dividend of 12 per cent has been paid on the nominal capital, equal to 16 per cent on the amount actually paid up by the shareholders. 'i'he company has made in one day 454,000 feet of gas, and is preparing for an immediate average wanufacture of 50,000 feet, and a future average of one million feetaday. By the absorption of the French Gas Company a few years ago it obtained the monopoly of the manufacture of gas in Shang! and the introduction of the electric light, which unnecessary apprehensions induced it to oppose vigorously, has given no check to its. prosperity. This has everywhere been the result, indeed, of the introduction of the electric light: it makes the community want more light, not give up the light they have already gat, The complaint has always been that the gas it supplies is bad, but still the service the company has rendered to the comminnity is unquestionable, and its present success is not more than a fair recompense for the trials it passed through thirty years ago. The introduction of the incandescent system, by which consumers get an infinitely superior light with an even diminished consumption of gas, will prove as great a boon to the ce pany as it is to consumers. The i caulescent gas light will not oust the electric light, for the latter. has. still the advantages that the light gives out no appreciable heat and no injarions pro~ ducts of combustion, and is unaffected by currents of air, but it enables gas.to compete on much more even terms with electricity. There is a more liberal spirit in the present board than there was two or three years ago, There is little question that two or three years ago the directors were starving the company in order to increase, or with the result of increasing, the apparent profits, but the unwisdom of this is now proved by the large outlay that is being made on larger mains. These improvements how as everything else ronnd us does how rapidly Shanghai has gone ahead since the war, The prologue of a theatrical performance given by the Shanghai Rangers in January, 1866, ended with the words "We'll know the happy day's at last begun, And all that once we lost's already won; Nor care what fates the other ports befall, Shanghai triumphant overtops them all!
Whatever hopes the speakers of that prologue, Captain Markham and Lieut-tenant Smith, who have now, alas! both Council tried to persuade his colleagues to buy up the Company for the municipality, and they could have had it fora song. It was one of those chances which the Council is constantly missing. They have made some amends by buying up the Electric Company and building a new and magnificent station, and when the Gas Company also have carried to completion the additions and improvements for which they are now raising additional capital, Shanghai will be indeed, as it has been, emphatically a place of light and leading.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.