Tue annual speeches of Sir thomas Sutherland to the shareholders in the "good old P. & 0." Company are always full and interesting, and the ove that he delivered on the 9th ultimo at the annual meeting of the Company was one of the fullest and most interesting of the series. He began by telling them that the past year was an unusually anxious, as well as an unusually active one, the Company's fleet having navigated very nearly 3,000,000 miles in absolute safety, and with a remark. able immunity from minor accidents, The fact that the company has constantly at work propelling engines aggregating about 250,000 horse-power, as well us an enormous number of smaller engines, and that there had been hardly a single stoppage of machinery even to remedy a hot bearing, led Sir Thomas into some pertinent remarks on the efficiency and safety with which the thousands of steamers carrying the British flag and traversing every year millions and millions of miles "are navigated, Sir, Thomas mentioned that five new steamers, the Malta, Palawan, Sunda, Sumatra, and Borneo, had come into active work during the year and given great satisfaction; while the India, one of four new 8,000-ton ships costing altogether about a tail lion sterling; whose sisters are the China, Hoypt, and Arabia, has started on her career. He also alluded to a 1,000-ton vessel, the Harlington, which has been acquired for a special purpose, and has carried afew months over 40,000 tons of cargo. he enormous mileage run altogether has raised the company's coal bill from £519,000 to £567,000, while the Suez Canal fees rose from £238,000 to £275,000, and maintenance and repairs from £243,000 to £267,000. 'T'wo old steamers have been sold—and there are sume others from which China passengers would welcome the disappearance of the envelope flag. The net result is that with bigger ships, increased work, and increased expenditure, the fall dividend has been amply earned, and a sum of £277,475 put aside for depreciation; after deducting which the fleet is only valued at £10 6s. $d. per ton or, deducting reserves, £6 14s. 7d., a result to be proud of.
Going farther into figures, Sir Thomas explained that passenger receipts for the year amounted to £1,043,000, an increase of £91,000 on the previous year, and an increase within the last fifteen years of half a million sterling, notwithstanding -a very marked reduction in rates, a heavy fall in silver, and the fact that, in consequence of that fall, a large number of people now travel second-class who would never have thought of doing so fifteen years ago. Sir 'I'homas adverted to the attack made upon the Company by the obscure body in India calling itself the Cheap Passage Association; a body which has no weight in India where the facts. are well known, but which is now doing its best in England to prejudice the Company's efforts to obtain a renewal of its mail contract. He referred more particularly to the matter in order to show that, when a careful estimate was made of the proportion of the cost of working due to carrying passengers, of the cost of keeping up an army of 3,000 stewards, and of the victualling, it was found that the net profit on this branch of their business was only about 7 per cent; that is, that every amount of £50 of passage money paid to the Company leaves a profit of no more than £3 10s, to the shareholders.
Homeward freights had been bad, a deficiency being shown from every port except Calcutta, but transport and inter-colonial business had come to the Company's assistance, and there has been an enormous expansion in the outward trade, India is importing railway material, Japan plant for mills and railways, Australia mining machinery; but this is unfortunately necessarily a temporary pressure, The drought in India causes anxiety, but India is fortunately a country of very varied resources. In 1895 the shipping trade was saved by the enormous jute crop. In 1896 cotton, linseed, and tea were the saviours, and Sir Thomas still entertains a hopeful view with regard to the immediate future:
'Then Sir Thomas turned to a very important subject, that of docks and wharves. Some months ago the Dock Company gave notice that they were going to make an excessive advance in rates' and as the P. & O. Company works its ships not in docks but at wharves at Antwerp, Calcutta, Hongkong, Shanghai, Sydney, and other places, it determined to do the same at London. With this object it bought a property of 70 acres, with a frontage of 4,000 feet on the Thames, at something over £220 an acre—land is much cheaper on the ''hames than on the Huangpu—and was prepared to build its own wharves. This brought the Dock Company to terms, anda new and workable agreement has been made, Meanwhile London is one of the most expensive ports in the world, and Sir Thomas quoted figures to show how it is being cut into by Antwerp, Bremen, Hamburg, and Rotterdam; and he added that "unless the charges in this port (London), not only dock dues, but the pilotage and light dues and other charges, are assimilated to those of the Continental ports to which I have referred, this diminishing trade is certain to become more marked in the future."
Sir Thomas then devoted himself to explaining a change which has been recently made by the Inland Revenue authorities in their allowance for the depreciation of ships, a change which results in the life of every steamer being calculated at fifty years. The 0. Company's rule is to write off an-unally 5 per cent of the original cost and they had proved that from 1,876 to 1894 inclusive, "viz, twenty-five years, this company had sold fifty-three steamers which cost originally £4,336,362, for the sum of £516,601, and during the time in which these steamers had been in their service the amount of depreciation written off at 5 per cent on the original cost brought the aggregate up to £3,751,026, which, added to the amount realised by the sale, aggregated £4,267,621, against the original cost of £4,336,362, so that in reality we had a net deficiency in the replacement of the capital of the company, notwithstanding the charge of 5 per cent on the original cost, of £68,741."
In closing, Sir Thomas paid a tribute to the late directors, Mr. de Salis and Mr. ait, mentioned that the mail contract was not yet settled, and justly claimed the approval of the sharéhulders for the way in which the company had been carried on. It is needless to say that the shareholders unanimously carried a vote of thanks to the chairman and the board' of directors for the successful way in which they had conducted the affairs of the Company, Seen ae Sitar OF Che Vompanyi._ "For tie Broop 13 Tue Lire."—Clarkes World-famed Blood Mixture is warranted to cleanse the blood from all impurities from whatever cause arising. For Scrofula, Scurvy, Eczema, Bad Legs, Skin and Blood Diseases, Pimples, and Sores of all kinds, its effects are marvellous. Thousands, of wonderful cures have been effected by it.' Sold everywhere ab 24 9d. Beware of worthless itnitations:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.