To sum up, the root of the trouble with Amherst is that the company is very much under-capitalized, the share issue and the debenture issue combined amounting to only Tls. 498,945, which is less than Tis, 273 For planted acre, Some of you may say, why not swe the unissued shares? But must point out that this cannot be done since the debentures are convertible into ordinary shares and these unissued shares have to be kept in reserve to meet any possible applications for conversion.
Turning now to planting matts the new manager, Mr, Norris, appears to have got matters well organized and he has already been able to effect material economies, The. output for the year was 235,330 Ib, against an estimate of 291,000 Ib. The chief. veason, for this. shortage was. that the trees were being, tapped on high: panels, and the probable rate. of yield theres from was obviously miscalculated, Unsatisfactory. weather conditions were also a factor, against the estimated crop. Weeding in the past has. always. been, a. very. expensive item, but by using a.tractor and plough to turn in the grass—the estate does not. grow a profusion of weeds—the. manager hopes to be able to reduce this to only a few Annas. per acre. per annum.
The supply of labour was plentiful and the health of the force was good. The manager expects to be able materially to reduce the tapping force by the adoption of iterate day tapping.
Neither pests nor disease gave any trouble during the year, and thinning out is only being done after repeated tests of the yielding; capacity of each individual tree.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.