The ninth annual general meeting of the Taiping Rubber Estates Ld., was held on Friday afternoon at the offices of the agents (Messrs. Hopkins Dunn & Ca). Mr. Brodie A Clarke presided, supported by Messrs. Grayrigge, P. C. Inglis and J. Frost (directors), and the attendance represented 40,841 shares, The notice convening the meeting having been read, the Chairman said in part:—In January of last year rubber fell to such a low value that if we had continued to produce it, we should have lost in the vicinity of §.$2,000 per month. Our agent in the F.M.S., Mr. Webster, estimated that the estate could be carried on without producing, at a cost (at that end) of §.$1,300 per month and recommended that this policy be adopted. The Board agreed and tapping ceased on January 31.
When in October last the price seemed to have recovered, instructions were given to restart tapping, but owing to the difficulty of obtaining sufficient labour, the output for November and December only amounted to 22,739 Ib., the estimated value of which was TIs. 4,494.67; added to the amount realized for the rubber harvested in January this makes a total for the year of Tls. 7,055.59.
This will explain the loss on the year which amounted to Tls. 10,- 116.93, being the balance of Tls. 3,587.07 brought forward from 1920 and the balance Dr. at profit and loss account of 6,529.86 on December 31, as shown in the accounts, There was of course no means of working out the all-in-cost of what rukher was produced, but our estate manager has up to the present on this year's working kept
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.