25th April. Ix the absence of Mr. David Reid, Mr. J. A. Maitland, another old China hand, presided at the annual meeting of the China Mutual Steam Navigation Company, Ld,, held in London on the 14th of March, and with the aid of Mr. Reid's notes he gave his hearers a most interesting account of the company, its working, its steamers, its past, and its future. After conatulating the shareholders on the dividends which it was proposed to declare, he mentioned the sale of the Pingsuey and Oolong. So rapidly do.the conditions of the trade change, that these two steamers which made their first voyages in 1890 and 1893, respectively, have already become too small; and we may note in passing that the China Mutual Company has the great advantage of not being hampered, like some of its competitors, with the possession of a lot of obsolete craft which augment the list of tonnage but cannot be profitably employed. Although the sale of these two steamers had diminished the Company's tonnage, they had found such profitable employment, not only in China and Japan, but in California, India, Indo-China, and Java, that the net result. shown in the profit: and loss account was £32,000 better than in 1897. The Company. uttered, like all other Steamer Companies, from the advance in the price of coal, which, taking, the average consumption' for a year, cost the Company 4s. a ton more than in 1897, or an excess of £17,000 for the year, nearly equal to 7 per cent. on' the share capital. Mr. Maitland noticed that the Company's tug and cargo-boats at Shanghai had' done good service, but, owing to the increase of water on the Woosung Bar, the cargo-and one had been sold and others boats had not. been required of late,
profitably chartered during the summer:
Mr. Maitland noticed that a consi derable change had been made in the statement of the accounts. 'The item headed Depreciation, Boiler, and Reserve Fund has been eliminated, andthe sum of £123,770 which stood to its credit last has been de-dueted from Steamers' Purchase Account; that i it has had no, existence except in the books, it has always been really invested in the steamers, and it has now gone to writing down the value of the lect. Th out of the profits of 1898, the sum of £65,000 was carried direct to the credit of Steamers' Purchase Account.
Mr. Maitland did not say what the fleet worked out at per ton, but he told his hearers: "I have no hesitation in saying that from the bond side offers of purchase that have been made sto us for many of our boats, and from estimates submitted by the shipbuilders, the fleet stands at a figure considerably below its intrinsic worth." He also mentioned the three new steamers that are to begin their work this year, and on account of which £62,562 has been paid, and averred "that they could not be replaced today except at a advance on contract prices." Of these three, one, the Yangtze, was launched at Belfast in January; the second, a new Pingsuey, was to be launched last month while the third, building in Glasgow and as yet unnamed, is very much behindhand owing to the pressure of work that is felt in all the best shipbuilding yards, but is expected to be ready about midsummer.
Then Mr. Maitland indulged in a gentle retrospect and said Gentlemen, looking back to the year 1882, when our company was formed and our enterprise commenced with the building on the Clyde of the Oopack and Nin chow (the latter is in perfect order, and still profitably employed), each of 2,700 tons gross reyister- Is at that time considered the most suitable type for our trade—and contrasting these two with the eight fine steamers built for us within the last three or four years and the three -now nearing completion, the changes in the carrying trade are remarkable. Some of you may wonder, as I sometimes wonder, whether the expansion of the trade of the world, and more especially that part of it in which we are more directly interested, is such as will give full, constant, and profitable employment to the greatly-increased tonnage of the mercantile maring to which the year 1898 has contributed. I would only say as to this, that since the accounts were made up on December 31st Inst, the king of the company has been quite factory. It never does to prophesy unless you know, but there is certainly very fair encouragement for hoping that
good. the working of the present year will prove During the past twelve months we have witnessed vast and far-reaching changes in the political and commercial relations of the Great Powers with China; promising, by means of railway concessions, mining concessions, and the opening up to foreiguowned vessels of free access to the waterways of the interior, great opportunities for enterprise.
He went on to quote Sir Claude Macdonald's br cee estimate of 2,800 miles of British railways in China; and he justly said such important concessions "must mean large expenditure sooner or later of forei; capital for plant, rolling-stock, and materials of various kinds... Progress must be made, and to this Company, as ocean carriers, all these concessions cannot be otherwise than advantageous... With our splendid fleet, officered and engineered by men of capacity and experience, under the guidance of our most capable, zealous and untiring managing director, Mr. Gulland, I believe we shall be able to render to you a good account of our stewardship, should we be privileged to meet you in this room in the closing year of the nineteenth century." Tt was only to be expected that all the formal resolutions should be carried without a dissentient voice, including a hearty vote of thanks to the chairman, the directors and staff, the captains and officers
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.