The seventh annual meeting of shareholders was held _on 22nd August, at the Shanghai Club. Mr. W. V. Drummond (Chairman) presided, there being also present Messrs. R, Francis (Director). Pow Kee, J. Buchanan, A. E. Jones, E. H. Hey, and ©. J. Dudgeon (Secretary), representing in all 780 shares.
Phe Chairmiu, in moving the adoption -of the report, which was taken as read, said the directors id endeavoured to give as full and complete an idea of the position of the company at the present moment as they possibly could. They had. also supplemented the report by a separate statement which was headed. for private circulation only," and which contained the views both of the Buard, and of those who were in actual charge of the property iv the Straits, with reference to what might be expected to be the result of. next year's campaign. The prospects in that Were so striking, in many respects, that the directors deemed it their duty to place the information in the hands of the shareholders. as early as pos: Tf thuse present desired to have any discussion with reference to the sepatats report, he suggested that it should place after the conclusion' of. the spublie proceedings at the meeting. "With Teference to: the. general. position of: the company, there was-probably little for him, add. to what..was said -in the report.' The only. special. point: he: wished to. refer to was that, as would be seen, practically revolution\.had.taken. place.in the whole the estate during the past year, Fayarded the two great, items of: ivition;' atid manufacture." ast few years the: extreme competition of beet sugar had absolutely compelled. cane planters, all over the world, to awake to the fact that to Mi they must look to their position much more carefully than they had done previously, and must set to work to adopt eiontibe methods, both of cultivation in the field and manufacture in the factory, if they were to hold their' own in the fight inet the beet competition, That had obliged cane planters, not- only in the Straits but everywhere, to set to work to find out by..scientifie methods what was wanted and what they must do. That, as the directors explained last year, was borne in upon them strongly and they decided to get information, and having got it to endeavour to carry it into effect, first by getting the necessary capital, und then spending it in the proper way by getting the necessary machinery. Last year that was explained, and now the directors had to point to actual results which had been obtained from the introduction of machinery scientific methods. the report the statement had been divided into two ions of a half-year each, the object being to bring out as clearly as possible the consider difference between the old system, the old management and machinery, and the actual out-turn of the lust six months under more improved and scientific arrangements. He thought, from a glance at the figures, they were justified in feeling that the results already obtained in the short period were such as to justify the very highest anticipations which they had formed of the improvement to result from the new and better machinery together with improved management. It would be seen that the difference between: the first, cond half-years was in some respects positively enormous, The improvement in quality of the sugar was very striking, but what was more striking was that in the first half-year the estate averaged 19.85 piculs arleng, and in the second half-year fees than 44 piculs per arleng. That was very large proportionate increase in the second half over the first half, even after making full allowance for the better canes dealt with. The directors had endeavoured to show in the report as clearly as they could how much of the improvement was due to better machinery and how much of ie might be taken off for reasons apart from that, such as drought, and otherwise. It was quite clour to them, xs it was to the rest ut the world, interested in the cultivation of cane, that the old system of cultivation was in many ways faulty, and that the manufacture was particularly wasteful. A great deal of sugar in the cane, which should have gone into the pockets of the shareholders in the shape of money, was absolutely wasted through the machinery not being perfect enough to extract it from the cane. "The directors eduld now point to results ut, combined good management and improved manufacture, and for the coming season they had an area under cane very largely in excess. of anything they had had before to count upon. Besides that, the Inbour was in a very satisfactory. state certainly more so than it had ever be before. They had never had any very great difficulties with labour, but they had always had a certain amount, which was now reduced to a minimum, and they were doing a uch larger amount of work with astaller number of men. With regard to management, as the shareholders were aware, Mr. Stewart had now had a short period for proving the value of his services..He (the Chairman) thought he might - congratulate the company—upon obtaining Mr. Stewart's services. It. was unquestionably very clear that be-had as manager-alone, and apart from-every other reason,: mad great' improvement in the present: condition -f- the estate. 'He was hah evidently abreast' of the times, and: had had more or less of scientific training and education, The labour, es he (the Chairman) had said,-was very. satisfactory, and that, was duo entirely Stewart's success as manager. He seemed to have gained the confidence of the people by improved arrangenients, and in many ways the company had to congra-palate itself upon having acquired his services as manager of the property." The agents also were entitled to' very distinct thanks for having helped the company during the non-productive time of the year, which required financial assistance for the company to.tide over, They had come forward again, as they did last. year, and not only was it very gratifying to find that, they were willing tu do. that, but it also showed the very strong confidence, which they themselves repeatedly expressed, that the company had a very substantial fature before it. He thought there was nothing else for him to touch upon, and if no one had any question to ask he would put the motion for the adoption of the report and accounts.
Mr. James Buchanan seconded the motion, which was agreed to unanimously.
Upon the motion of Mr. -J. Buchanan, seconded by Mr. Hey, Mr. E. G. Low, the retiring director, was re-elected.
On the proposal of Mr. Jones, seconded by Mr. R. Francis, Mr. G. R.'Wingrove was re-appointed auditor at a remuuieration of Ts, 100, The Chairman then proposed that the next annual meeting should be held in October next year. He explained that this would admit of the accounts being made up to the end of the campaign instead of their having to be estimated for the latter part as at present.
Mr. Jones seconded, and_the resolution was agreed to unanimously.
This concluded the hi ess of the meeting,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.