The annual meeting of the shareholders of the above company was held at the offices of the Chairman of the company, Mr.
Jenner Hogy, 10 Peking Road, on Wednesday afternoon. There were algo present Messrs. J. Cooper and E. A. Probst (directors). Mr. H. P. Wilkinson (legal adviser), Mr. G. R. Wingrove (secretary), Mr. H. King Hiller (engineer), and Messrs. J. Ambrose, J. Buchanan, C. C. Bennett, HLF. L. Bell, A. W. Burkill, E, Davis, J.C. Hanson, H. R. Kinear, F. E. Taylor, Thorne, A. B. Trodd, C. H. Wells, E. P. Wickham, and J. M. Young, representing 1,582 shares, or equal to. 597 votes.
"The notice convening the meeting having been read, the report and accounts (a copy of. which' has already appeared in these columns) were submitted.
The Chairman in moving their adoption said:—Gentlemen—There is a small printer's error in the report. he net profit is stated as Tls. 52,131.33. Tt should be Tis, 52,131.29. It does not affect the accounts. 'Making this correction we will, with your permission, take the report and accounts alread. I am glad to be able to point to, the satisfactory results, on the whole, for the past year, although' the advance in thi rice of coal has made the cost of working n proportion to the increase in con: rimption, and low rates of exchange have affected the cost of repaire and maintenance. At the same time I must remaind you that this result was obtainep through our having coal contracts runing at lower prices than we have since had to pay. Consumption his ins creased 12,969,921 cubic feet or 12.48 per cent over the previous year, which, though " smaller increase than in 1896 compares very favourably with preceding years especially us we have lost the street lighting in the French Concession since July 1897, causing a decrease from that source of 1,814,031 cubic feet. On the hand there is a small increase of 071 cubic feet the English Settlement public lighting. Tt is interesting to note that during the 24 hours at the list Chinese New Year there was again a '*ro-cord" delivery, 592,000 cubic fe-t or 66.5 per cent over thy similar day in 1897. The manufacture and distriliution have gone on smoothly and the new Hongkew Gas Holder was completed by the end of the year but the connecting mains were net sufficiently advanced to permit of its being brought into ordinary use till the 21st January 1898. Tt is a telescopic Holder to contain 500,000 cubic feet of gas and in connection with it are buildings comprising boiler and engine rooms, governor house, store, and dwelling house for a foreign foreman. ' All the work. has been satisfactorily done and this addition to the Company's resources cannot fail to improve the lighting of the Hong. kew district so soon as private services and fittings hare been set in order. A circular with this object has been addressed to consumers in that locality. Turning to the accounts. he receipts for gas and residuals sold show an increase of Tls. 20,227.36 or 123 per cent, whilst expenditure has increased Tls. 23,407.60 or 22 per cent. Foreign consumption, including pablic lamps, shows an increase of Tls. 4,658.38 or 5.71 per cent (and you will bear in mind that we have had no public lamps in the French Concession since the end of July). Native consumption has increased Tls. 15,211.88 or 27 per cent. Residuals show a small increase of Tls. 357.10 or 14 per cent. The smallness of the increase is due to the fact that we use more coke in the works and, besides, we have actually carbonised only about the same amount of coal as in 1896, the improvement in the works having contributed to this result. In regard
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.