The fifth anmpl ordinary meeting of the above Company was held at the head office in Hankow Road on Tuesday. The following were present, or were ited:—Dr. Macleod (Chairman), Messrs. A. W. Barkill, Paul Branat (Directors), H. TH, Cooninghem, Hunt, A. Riva, G. Neumann, Willian Yatov. Mustard and Ca., A. H. Brooks, Page, U. Allan, Captain Watson, and Gastay Oberg (Secretary). the Secreiary red the notice convening the meeting.
The Chairman said:—The accounts have-been in your hand for some days and with your permission I will take them as read. Before jing that the report and accounts be passed I wish to make a few remarks. There is an error to
report. The amount available for appro-PYiation is Ts. 45,640.43, and the amount to be carried forward to new account should be Tls. 3,664.43 instead of Tls. 4,662.43. It you examine the working account you will find an increase in ture " proportionate to our increasing business under all the headings, three of which call for the following remarks. Under House Rent and Taxes I wish to point out that during the first two yours we were in these premises,
for this upper flat. Since then our business terms that we had very little to the whole of the lower fah on sunt has gradually absorbed algo the lower flat and we have now to pay the entire rent. We have still six years of our lease to run luring this period the expenditure under this heading will not increase while there is every indication that the number of subscriptions will steadily increase. In order to train the operators to a higher state of efficiency we decided early in the year to double the foreign supervision and to institute a new post, that of Chinese superintendent, working side by side with, but under the orders of, the foreign The "Salaries and Wages." The third heading calling for remarks is "Repairs and Maintenance." This year a new department, itis separate staff lias been formed. Previously men employed in the Consteuction Depart ment were detached as they were needed to mend and repair lines that were found to be oat of order, and only the time thus occupied charged to' this account. This system while it had its economical advantages that on the 51s of March last 13,557 connections were recorded. During the three hours from 9 to 12 a.m. there were 5,000; between 2 and 4 p.m. there were 4,663; and during the other 18 of the 24 hours that day 3,894. Betwoon 9 to 10 am. there were 1861, ie. 31 per minute. Divided equally between 12 operators, each of these would have a call to attend to every 23 seconds. Unfortunately the calls cannot be distributed equally amongst the operators nor equally in time, so that it is impossible to awld slight delays when several calls have to be attended to by one operator at the same time, as is not infrequently' the ese during the busy hours, To redeem one of our early promises, we have lately at a expense laid down pointe at the wharves on this side of the river for the use of ships moored there and if it is found that the seafaring community is inclined to make {Use of the facility thus offered, we intend also to connect up ships on the other side and at the buoys. We have arranged for our Secretary and Ueusre]-Manager to gu to the United States and to Europe to learn all he can concerning our business before we commence next year to double the capacity of our Exchange. He will leave on the 4th of May and be back on the 17th October next. During his absence the Superintendent Miss Deedy-Keane will be in charge. accounts be passed as printed with ception of. the correction of the amount they had to do. With the consent of the shareholders he would like to propose that the remuneration of the directers be increased from Tls, 125 each, to "Tls. 250.. The way in which the management had fulfilled the Promises made when the Company was first started was most creditable.
Mr. Allen seconded the proposition The Chairman said that it was very satis. factory to him and to his colleagues to be commended for their work in this way. He need not swy that both he and his fellow directors returned very hearty thanks for the kind remarks made, 'The Chairman then proposed: 'That the report and accounts, with the aeration of the errors mentioned,' the substitution of Tls. 1,750 for Tls. 1,300 against Directors' and Auditors' fees, and the alteration of the amount to be quried forward from Tls. 4,664.43 to Pls. 3,664.43 be accepted and passed, Mr. Burkill seconded the reolution which was carried unanimously.
The Chairman, seconded by Mr. Paul Brunat, then proposed: That Mr. J. D. Thorburn be re-elected Auditor for the ensue ing year.
This was carried unanimously.
Mr. Riva proposed, seconded by Mr. Hunt: That the retiring directors, Dr. Macleod, and M. Paul Brunat, be re-elected.
This aleo. was carried nem. con.
The mooting then closed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.