nual Mee The annual meeting of shareholders in Horse Bazaar Company, Ld., as held on Wednesday evening at the offices of the Company occupied the chair, there was a large attendance of shareholder The notice convening the meeting was the Secretary.
The Chairman said that as the Report and Accounts had been in their hands for ome time he would, with their permis:
take them as read. He had to sine remarks which he trusted would be reasonable to the shareholders, and also with regard to the general position of the Directors. They would observe from the Report that at the end of the year there was a credit balance to the Profit. and Loss Account of Tls. 51,158.65. The net profit for the year wax Ts. 25,816.38, After payment of a bonus for the previous there a balance row 4 which was added to the net profit. The Directors recommended a dividend of [buildings fixed at a very low value. for the year ending the 1902, which would absorb and leave a balance of Tis. carry to the 1903 accoun a good deal of talk manner in which thi Acevunts had come before the shareholders, and therefore he should explain that as well as he could, so that the shareholders would kn the position the Hireetars tov matter. Taking first the Profit Accounts they would "is that the invoice of goods and bout Ths, 300 over the pre and interest on marty crease of about Tis.
40, and Salarie: wages were about T's. 2,000 more; fodder and pasturage is. 3,009 more than in the previous year, owing tothe advance in the prices and the increase in the business, Fire Insurance showed a small increase, and Exelange Account an increase, 0 tothe fluctuation of the money i the year, Trade expenses were less. "The upkeep of the premises cost Tls, 1,000 more, which was duo matters baileings. The balance was therefore to certain repairs having been done to the
Tls. 51,958, The They would observe on the Unlance was opposite side that the gross earnings of the Company were increased by about Tis 6,000. With regard to the Property Account, they would see that the buildings and the property stood at over Tls. 54,000 on the Bazaar lands, and these at Hongkew over Tis, 11,000 making 2 total of Tls. 65.809. airist which they hada mortgage with the tsze Assurance Company of Tis.
5,000. With regard tw this he thought perhaps he might as well give them a short recount of the history of the Company from the time when it was first started. Tt might be remembered by some of them that when the Company purchased the oar the value of the stock was then given as Tls. 48,375. The present value of their stock was Tls 77,79, or an increase of Tls. 29,426. Te' would be also remembered by the older shareholders that when the Company was first purchased they had ne" property what Lever. They bought the stock "and paid so much for the goodwill, and they had no place of their own, the building rented. The Directors did not der that a very satisfactory position for a Company to be in, and consequently they had, from time to time, made various purchases of property, and of course, could they have foreseen what would happen in 14 or 15 years, they would have bought more. They did the best they could, however, on what they had to work on. With regard to the amount at credit of the Company, he would point out that when the Directors purchased the Company they paid, in addition to the Tls. 48,373, TIs. 28,00 for the good will. Since then they ad spent on property Tls. 57,654, so that they had out of Working Account' paid in addition to dividends no less a sum than Tls. 115,823. The dividends which they had paid'amounted to Tis, 118,822 in 13 years. The only liability against this Property was the mortgage" with the Yangtsze Assurance Company. The total amount paid in dividends, "good will and property in 13 years was"Tls, 230,220, leaving, less the mortgage, Tls. 205,290 The dividends paid represented a_ little more than what they had purchased in. the way of stock, properties, and the erection of buildings, so that he trusted that when the shareholders came to pass the Accounts, they would consider the Directors had done the best they could in not recom. mending " bigger dividend than 10 per cent. OF course, could the Directors weve foreseen what was yoing to happen they would have bought more property, but they did the best they could at the he thought it was advisable in a 0 China to have their land and 10 per cent and a bonus of 8 per cent was then always a valuable asset. The Bist December, Trade Accounts were a little less than last Unexpired Fire Insurance was sane and the shares in the Telephone Company a little more. Cash in hand and in the Bank represented nearly Ts. 7,000 more than He did not think there was anything more he could say about the Accounts. The details of the ly property.
and what, money had been aot were before them, and there was also a statement which' he would give to them showing the position of the Company at. the date of its starting, and the position it was in now. 'The Com: pany had very valuable property there and om the Hanbury Road, and in' connection with this the Directors found that owing to the increase of business, and more especially the large amount of work done for the Council, that it would be necessary to extend the property of the Company by buying a piece of property further out tothe western district in order to meet requirements for work. A contract with the Council was concluded quite recently two years, and if they read the Municipal Budget they wonkl see that there was sainte correspondence with the Council on this matter. This correspondence had resulted in the Council agreeing to accept their tender, after they had pointed out to the Council that in days gone by there was not neatly such a large ntileaye of streets, and that on Sunday no work was done by their servants. Recently the engineer department had had to work on Sunday. A considerable reserve of ponies had to be kept for that worl There had been, he believed, good deal of talk with regard to the position of the Company in reference to this possession of in lands and property sind not, ly in cash, and ter on he would put rl a scheme for increasing the capital of the Company, which he hoped would be accepted by the shareholders Mr. A. W. Burkill said he hoped the remarks he had to make would be accepted in the right. spirit. After what had been said by the Chairman showing the position of the Company from the beginning, which, he thought, reflected very great credit on the Directors from the commencement, it might coom rather
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.