The sixth annual_meet Kung Mow Cotton Spinni Company was held at the vttices of the general managers, Messrs. Mhert Kiangse Road, on Tuesday, the 20th Fel ruary. Mr. FP. Anderson (Eh Directors) presided, and there were present Messrs, ott, ai. M. You and Chung Li Mach and Messrs. E. C. Pearce, D. Litth, F. H. Bell, A. R. Murphine, A. Cashny, It. P, Wilkinson, yh ving, Tuli Kee, and Luk presenting 1553 shares.
Upon the proposition of the Chairman, Mr. E. C. Pearce w: appointed secretary te the meeting, the notice ernie vening it, The report and accounts were first brausht ful vail, The Chairman said—Gentlemen, the Report and Accounts have been in your ands for " fortnight and with your po mission we will take them as read.
The year which is covered by the report has been one of considerable difficulty. cotton spinners: great variations taken place in the values of yarn and ton; at the besinning of the year Chi cotton was selling at about TI per jricul from which rate it gradually rose in value until at the end of the year the so quality was worth nearly 40 per cent; it is quoted at abut Tls. 19 to-day; yarn on the other hand declined from "Ts, 2 te Ts. 5 per Tule dunny the first six months of the yea and it was only during the latter the year that the market advanced; at the end of the year it barely 20 per cent the beginning; the feature of cotton was in short wally owl largely iner supplies sent from India and Japan ners in Tndia towards the end of the year Uy curtailed production, and this is abtedly tending to bring aby healthier state of things; sororal Shang mills discontinued night stork during the year, in view of the prospectly cotton and the oversupply of this step has favourably affected the mai for Iveal spi The year's workin:
ile vy corn very little more than depreciation of our machinery, but with the additional amount which we now recommend should be written off, we think the shareholders can feel that their property's in quite as good " position as it was a year jit may be true that if we had worked and night, we might have made a larger profit, but against that we should have had at least double the amount of tion to write off; machinery is in pects not unlike a man, it requires a rest, and burning the candle at both ends tends to shorten its life; seeing that the result of our working, as far the shareholders are concerned, is better th swe have ble to incur the extra ved in workin and close upon 3 quarter of fuels we been paid in lone for wa; ud salaries in the cotton mills; much of this money would have been lost to China but for the establishment of this industry, and under these circumstances one would expect that the Government would be disposed to do all in its power to foster it; i ug this being the case, mills in re handicapped in several ways compared with Indian, Japanese, or Hongkong mills. For instance, we have to pay duty on Indian and American cotton, on our stutes and coal, on paper, canvas, and hoops, tw niake our bales, and in addition te pay duty on our yarn at the same ported yarn; our competitors elsewhere are exempt from this double duty; again if we tried to compete with of China, we pay an export duty from which they are exempt; when buy cotton from Hankow, or any. othe 'Treaty port in China, we hive t pay coast trade' duty, which is in_ addition to the Fduty yo te be hoped thai the native sathotities will be bre tw sve that it is contrary to the into of China to retard the development of sich an important addition to the wealth {of the country, and that before long they will follow the example of all progressive countries and endeavour to foster ni Another disulvantage from_ which we is the unduly high tes of Fire Insur hanghai; we spent in' taking extra but so far much Jower tariff and it is hoped that Shanghai rates will
ong.
ride te evrrenpond with them ere regards our tot we have mills very neatly: gradually be our machinery is giving every satisfaction, we have been able to sell our production without running into stock at full tes, which, owing to the superior our production, are considerably.
than those of Japanese or Indian spinnings: I think there is little doubt that cloth made of yarn spun from China thicker' and stouter and more ive cloth e same counts of yarn -jun from Indian or American cotton: our chief ditliculty has been the high cost of raw material, but nity which cotton swimmers the world have had to contend with; excepting the difficulties to which Thave referred. T cam see no reason why cotton mills in China should not be able to compete successfully with those established elsewhere, and we must hope that the Chinese Government will see that it jis in the best interests of the country to remove drawbacks which at present hamper us.
Referring to Profi: and Loss a/c, interest isan exeeedinsly heary change; one disadvantage in buying Chinese cotton is that it is impossible to buy it for forward delivery in a rising market "with safety and consequently we have to lie out of cash advance to a considerable extent. North Property Account leaves a loss on king of Tls. 1,174.00 owing toa considerable number of our houses being unoccupied: building in. the Yangtsepoo district has Leen overdone, and consequently rents have fallen for the time being.
As regards our Balance Sheet, Buildings stand at is. 5,500 over last year, being part ofa godown which we had to build in place of the matshed where we formerly stored our waste; machinery stands a6 100,000.00 more than last year, after writing it down Tls. 10,000.00, caused by the addition of 5,000 spindles and considerable amount of preparatory ma-ich was found to be necessary cllicient working of the mill; Rose coir and Land Improvements and Chinese property are the same as last year; the yarn in stock at the end of the yea all sold; cotton in stock was Tls. 167,000.00, making our total stocks of all Kinds close upon" Ths. 315,000.00. We have cotton in stock sufficient for several months ahead; since the end of the year cotton has advanced about 10%, and yarn from 3 to 5%. Tf any shareholder has any questions to ask I shall be glad to answer them to the best of my ability Mr. W. D. Little—I understood you to say that the yarn at the end of the year is all sold. Yet it is valued here at Tis, 118,000, The Chairman—It is sold but not Mr. W. D. Little—Can you tell me the naunt of premium that you paid he year to protect your industry of he Chaizman—About Tis 11,000, Mr. W. D, Little—Tdon't think that is rinan—T said it was excess combat h Indian rates. Indian rates for a similar mill were very little more than half, Mr. W. D. Little Under similar conditions as to surroundings The Chawman—L believe that our surroundings were even better than theirs.
The Chairman then proposed, and Mx, A. Korif seconded, the adoption of the report and accounts resented, "This was carried unanimously.
Cushny proposed that Mr. Ay a Mr. Chung Liang-yn he reappointed directors of the company.
Mr. W. D. Little seconded, and it was Mr. W. D. Little proposed that Mr. G. R. Wingrove be re-elected as the company's auditor for the current.
Mr. A. Cushny seconded, and it was carried.
Finally, the Chairman proposed that the next general meeting he held during the months of February or March, 1901, This s necessary since the Articles of Association gave Aprils the month, Last year hey passed a resolution changing the date, and a similar resolution would be necessity every year, it. T. M. Young seconded, and it was carried unanimously.
This ended the business of the meeting.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.