At the annual general meeting of the company in October of Last, shareholders expressed then portunity and, as the views of the beholders were shared by your directors, the company's agents in' the Straits were instructed to solicit offers. No offer of any kind could be obtained until some time in the spring, wher rubber had improved to a little over 1s. 3d. and at that time we were asked to ive an option for $75,000, which was refused.—After most careful consideration of the best interests the company, your directors tually gave an option of $100,000, object to a cash deposit of $10,000 ind the option to be exercised with in one month, At the time the possibility of sale was intimated and the option given by us to the prospective purchaser, who, by the way, is a London company, the price of rubber was 1s 9d. for spot and 1s. 63d, forward, which latter figure we naturally took as being indicative of what the future price might be. It is needless for me to tell you that, if we did anticipate the present high level of price, we not believe of it being mai tained for any great length of time, _we certainly did not expect that rubber would reach the 4s. mark before the expiration of the option. It is easy to be wise after events, but I wish to assure the shareholders that the sale was not made hurriedly or without due consideration from all points of view.
making the sale, we consider we have attained the object desired both yy the board and the shareholders and consolidated the future success of the company as a dividend-paying. proposition, with power. t> develop our estate to the best, advantage.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.