The annual meeting of this Company was held at No. 27, the Bund Fri There were present Mr. R. Inglis (Eh man), Zeo Quay-tang and Hong-dow (members of the consulting committee), Jas McKio (Secretary), James Kerfoot (Mill Manager), C. E. Anton, G. Butler, J. D. Clark, Brodie A. Clarke, Fleet, MacHaffie, Viloudaki, Yuen Chang and Zee Long-char.
The Chairman—The report and accounts have been in your hands for some day and with your permission we will follo the usual "cristo: and consider them read.
At our last annual meeting I mentioned that prospects for the year now under review were not entirely unsatisfactory and indicated that a good demarl for yarns had enabled the mana, t sell the production of the mill and I then further drew attention 'o thy prospect of a short crop of China cotton necessitating our having to fall back on India or clesewhero for our supplies of raw material. What I then prognosticated has been confirmed in results, and the profits we made in the early part of our working year have been absorbed very materially by a comparative failure of the native crop having forced us to draw our supplies from India. The cotton thus imported, owing to shrinkage in exchange, made the cost of our yarns produced. abnormally high, and this fact combined with extreme depression in demand throughout the late summer and autumn months resulted in our out-put heine sold at a loss. When we were working to advantage in November, 1901, we again started night work, but owing to the difficulty of procuring sufficient operatives it had to be abandoned after a period of three weeks. This naturally was very unfortunate but the fact must not b~ overlooked that while we were thus precluded from increasing our profits we were not incurring that depreciation on the value of our machinery which night work re presents. Turning to the accounts you will notice that the working account shows a profit of Tls. 94,336.29 and the balance at debit of profit and loss account is now reduced to Tls. 4,215.88. The interest on overdraft figures at Tls. 5,000 less than last year, while there is an increase in our fire insurance account of some Tls. 3,000 which is explained by our carrying increased stocks of higher values. I take t portunity of mentioning that the Fire Insurance Association of Shangitai have met us in a very fair manner in regard to an application we made for a reduction in rates when mills"wero not working at night and we may look for a saving in this connexion. Under the heading of renewals, and repairs we hae spent Tls. 16,279.06 and I am clad to be able to say that Mr. Kerfoot, our mill manager reports the entire machinery in excellent order.
The new Treaty, conditionally arrang by Sir James Mackay, docs not deal too Kindly with native made yarns for instead of paying as at present 7 mace per picul, it Is proposed to charge an excise equi: valent to double the i: port duty as down in the protocol of 1901. This oaty, however, if ratified, dors not come into force until January, 1904.
One is always averse to making any statement regarding ¢! future, but we have begun the year favourably and the production is sold well forward with cotton purchased to cover at priers which show a fair margin of pri cotton crop will probably prove a record yield and as is usual, when the crop is heavy in quantity it is good in quality: prices have been kept up higher than might reasonably have been anticipated by heavy buying for japan.
Before moting the adoption of the report and accounts I shall be very glad to answer to the best of my ability any questions shareholders desire to a:
Mr. Butler asked whether it asa demand from Japan or a combi among dealers that caused the excess price of native cotton.
The Chairman found it dificult but his impression that the p due to a combination among t Chinese dealers.
Mr. Butler did not wish to criticise the report but, for information, asked if it were necessary to pay this exesssive prion, might even be better policy to shut down the mi The Chairman said the managers were doing their best to find a cheaper market and the price was not wholly due to a combination of dealers, Mr. MeLrod seconded and the report was adopted.
Mr. Brodie A. Clarke proposed flirt the following be elected members of the cone
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.