The fifth ordinary mooting of this Company was hold on Wodnesdlay at the office of the General Managers, Messrs. Libert Ca., 2% Kiangee Road. Mr, 0. J. Dud-goon. Chairman, presided and there were shee Liang-yn (Directors), F. Ander: rodent, Messrs. A. Korff, J. M. Young,
ton, A. R. Murphino, H. Davis, H, A. Hewett, LIF, Is. Bell, W, D. Little, J, Stonhotise, W Lamond, and Chan Yat-ching, representing in all 1,473 shares. Upon the Pourco wns appointed Secretary to the position of the' Chairman, Mr. B.C. riveting, and read the notice convening it.
'The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the report and accounts, said-—Gentlemen, the report and accounts, which have been in your hands for a' considerable period, may, 1 presume, be taken us read, [should explain that the reason why there has been so long an interval between the issue of the report and the holding of the mooting, la that our Articles of Association provide that uolovs the Company in gonoral meeting fixes upon date for the holding of the next meeting, such meeting shall be hold in either March or April; n6 no date wns fixed when we last met, all that the Directors could do. was to call this mooting the earliest date possible allowed by the Articles. The year which is covered by the report before you has been, as your are aware, one of vaticd experiences. As ig stated' in the report the working of the mill during the first six mentha Bireotors felt themselves fully justified such satisfactory results that the
in declaring, out of the sccuniulatod credit of Tis, 64,000 in Profit and Loss Account on the 30th June, xn interim dividend of 4 per cent. In' view of the" adverse circumstances which had to be contended against during the later part of the year, this payment of a dividend is perhaps to be regretted; at the time, how-over, there way no indication of coming troubles. The price of local cotton had certainly risen to an absurdly high level, but this we could view with comparative indifference in view of the supplies Isid in at lower cost, and the continued strength of the yarn market. It was month or so later that indications of serious trouble showed themselves; the markets both in Hongkong and Shanghai began to be looded with Ladian. spinning, and Japan also. was unloading on China. This flooding of the market with supplies occurred at the very worst time of the yoar—yarng being slow to move during the hot weather. By the middle of September there was an accumulated stock of imported yarns in Hongkong and Shanghat of fully 100,000 bales, and a stock of local spinnings of between 15,000 and 20,000 bales; moreover, the situation in Shanghai was rendered all the worse by a movement of the Hongkong stocks to thia macker, The situation brought about its inevitable result, and a drop of from 10 to 15 por cent in yarn prices followed, some counts being absolutely unselonble. The losses which were incurred upon these Indian and Japanese shipments are likely to prevent a similar exploitation of the Chinese market for some time to come, To further aggravate matters were the conditions of the local cotton market, to which, both as they were then, and as they are now, I wish to ask your particular attention. From the beginning of the vent there dot in, as T have said, a steady rise la the price of fodal cotton, which, though in ity earlier stages it waa counter: balanced by a corresponding advance in yarn prices, became absolutely absurd when, towards the end of June, the market quotation stood at Tls. 17 per picul, I may remark in passing that the company had no contracts at any such ridiculous price. I may perhaps be bettor blo to illustrate the difficulties of the local market by representing its fluctuations in percentages. "Taking as the basis the price of cotton in January, 1898, which then was abnormally high, the course of the market wasin round figures as follows: from January to Juno the market rose game 12 to 15 per cent; from June to Sopteraber i fell from Jane prices) between 26 and 80 per cent; from September to the present date, the pendulum has again swung the other way, and there has been a rise from the lowest pois of nearly 26 por cent, which in effect bunga us back to the Between. highoot' and lowest quotations ions of January, 1898. The fluctuation during the 14 mouths hus been (on lowest ost basis) very nearly 40 per cent. Now, gentlemen, te clearly absard tine fucvaations such as this, which ate entirely wnwarranted by any movement in cotton prices in other parts of the world, should occur in Shanghai, The plain infarenco in that the still undeveloped condition, xs I may call it, of the Shanghai cotton market is being exploited by the cunviog of native speculation, I venture to think, however, that this native manipulation of the local market rests upon such slender foundation of ignorance and sborteightedness, that it can without much difficulty be checked. Cotton is a commodity which has what may be called a world's value, and it is absurd that such world's value of Chios cotton should be upset, to the extent which it hus been, and is, by the cunning of the native speculators, There reason to think that the present speculative rise will result in badly burnt fingers to its originatora, but, however this may be it seems to me that one meos of praventing farther repetition of this manipulation of market lies in combination among the foreign buyers; that, in fact, something in the nature of a Cotton Exchange be established, having for its object the regulation of local cotton prices in relation to world's value, and preventing the cotton sellers from playing off one buyer against another, which they certainly are doing at the present time. (Hear, hear.) This has Tong been an object with the Directors of thio company; there have been, and still are, many diicultios in arranging matters, bot the question is one which is now generally recognised aa of high importance, and I trast that out of the schemes which are now under consideration, x workable basis of foreign combination may be rived at. After this somewhat lengthy and pessimistic dissertation upon the unsatisfactory conditions of our Jocal cotton market, I'am pleased to be able to go on to say that the Company has made its arrangements for supplies of cotton fally sufficient for many months to come, and we are in the position of being able 40 Took fon at. the local rigging of the macker with considerable compinisance, At the same time, however, do not for a moment burke the fact that the milla here were established with the object of utilising the local raw material; i¢ la fortunate, no doubt, that we have the advantage of being aile to bay in other markets, and so muske ourselves in great measure indepen dent. of local conditions" fact which I think is not sufficiently taken into account lyy the manipuintors of the cotton market here. Nevertheless, the intention of our mills was, and is, to spin Chinese cotton, and the sooner that there is combination to bring the veal cotton dealers to their sonses, the better. To return to the recounts; after the payment of the dividend already referred t there is a balance at credit of Profit an Loss Account of Ta. 10,600; this sum the Directors cecomimend should by transferred to Depreciation Account, It ie " matter for regret that the amount so transferred is not larger, for I wish to lay stress upon the mecossity of full attention being paid to the matter of depreciation, and to point cub that it will be the policy of th Directors to attend to this question when dealing with the further profits of the Company. Atour last meeting authority was taken to issue. the then remaining 2000 shares of the Company's capital; the result that Deena the. plaging <of 1;163ushaceas leaving 842 shates still to be disposed of 5 we hope thab the improving position. of the Company will enable the completion of the issue before long. The stook of wen at the end of the vene was somoyrhat avy; the bulk of it was sold, nnd thy remainder tas since boom disposed of at prices fully covering the valuation. Tmay mention here that it has been the constant policy of the Directors to avoid running into stock as ranch a8 possible there are times, of course, when clear. ances are dificult, but our policy as anu. facturers has been to keep selling. In this connection I may ay that practically. the whole of our present production for some time is contracted for, and with the opening of the northern' ports we trust to fee ® clean book #0 far as stock is eon corned, Ibwill be scon that during the your some Tls. 18,000 has been spent on the Chinese "Property Account the expenditure has been in additional building, and there ato now 213 houses ready for occupation. During the construction al period it has to be confessed that the letting of the houses hae not been very satisfactory, but now that the locality is getting warmer," the houses are being talon more froely, and T hope that only a little patience is required to bring the houses that are erected into full occupation of much servic in the matter of Inbour by the oil nay which cannot fall to be arrangements, It is oatly yet to commit ourselves as to the prospect for the present year; during the two months that have tun, the mill hus worked satisfactorily, though of course the incidence of China New Year brought with it the usual in-organisation. The mill-in, ae 1 have said, terruption of work, and temporary dis: well supplied with cotton; the yarm market la favourable, snd with the economies
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.