The fifteenth annual meeting of the Perak Sugar Cultivation Ca:, Ld., was held at the office of the Company, Kiangse Road, on Thursday afternoon, 15th November, 1900. There were present Mr. W.'V. Drummond, in the chair, Messrs. F. Anderson, J. H, Mé¢Michael, and J. Stenhouse, Directors; and Messrs. C. J. Dudgeon, W. B. Jamieson, J. M. Young, J. Buchanan, A. 8. P, White-Cooper, E. Hey, F. A. do St. Croix, R. J. Hardoon, A. E. Jones, and Leonard Kerr (Secretary), representing 1,265 shares.
The Chairman said—Tho report and accounts have been in your hands for about a fortnight, and I presume we may take them as read. I have very little to add to them in the way of information to-day You will doubtless observe that the expenditure of the Company during the past year has decidedly increased, but when you consider that as against that there is a considerably extended cultivation, and that the revenue side of the account is at least proportionately increased, if not more $0, I think you will be satisfied that that increase of expenditure has been wisely and properly incurred. You will observe that we mention having received from Mr. Dudgeon a report upon the Company's property, based upon his personal observation, as he paid a visit to our property during his recent return from England to Shanghai. This report we consider to be a very valuable one, and we have had extracts made from it, containing all the Principal points of the report. These are copied out, and are now lying in the Secretary's office, where they may be seen by any shareholder. In this report, and also in the annual report before you, you will soo that the condition of the Company is now extremely good in all respects. I wish now to emphasise this, and to draw your attention to the fact that it is primarily duo to the excellent services of Mr. Boyd, our manager, that the condition of the Company is so healthy and satisfactory. He has proved himself to be the right man in the right place, and his work has brought the estate from the decidedly unhealthy state in which it was when he first joined it, to one which it is now hardly possible to excel. Next to him in importance is the engineer—a very important man to us. Our engineer, Mr. Macdonald, has done excellent work during the past year, as in preceding Fears, and we have to thank him next to Mr. Boyd. Besides these two gentlemen all the rest of the staff have worked well and faithfully during the past year, and it is only just to tell you that your success is due to a great extent to the work of the staff on the spot. Wo have recognise ed that, as you will seo from the accounts, and propose to give a bonus corresponding to the prosperity of the company and the excellent work done. We trust the proposal will meet with your full and warm approval. With regard to the appropriation of the profits you will see that the reserve fund has reached the sum of Tls. 75,000. That is 2.matter of precaution that we.thought ditto adopt as soon as it was practicable, and.wo have built up the seserre fund to that sum,..T+ seems to us now right that we should give you sonic indication of our policy in, the future in regard to that item. Our idea is, at present, that we should build up the reserve. fund to 2 minimum sum of Tls. 100,000, arid keep that always in liquid assets which can be realised at any
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.