Mr. C. R. Burkill presided at the 5th annual general meeting of the Tanah "Merah Estates, Ld., held on Tuesday at the offices of the secretaries and managers, Messrs. A. R. Burkill & Sons, In the course of his speech, the Chairman said Dealing first with the accounts, you will sec from the balance sheet that the company's liquid assets only just cover the sundry creditors, and the recent further depression in the price of rubber has necessitated the borrowing of some money since the end of the financial year. Every possible economy is being instituted and - provided the price does not further recede, the directors do not anticipate having to borrow any very large amount.
As you are aware, the company has a large reserve area of excellent land which it hoped to gradually plant up. The present cir cumstances in the industry preclude all possibility of doing this and under any circumstances it would appear inadvisable to in crease the already serious overplanting and production of the past few years. The directors are disinclined to dispose of this land unless obliged to, as most of it lies directly between the planted wroos and there is a danger of undesirable neighbours, but in order to obtain funds it would seem that at least a portion of must be sacrificed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.