The 12th annual general meeting of the Karan Rubber Estates Ca., Ld., was held on Monday at the ofhees of the general managers, No, 2 Canton Road. Mr. C. R. Burkill presided, supported by Mr. Chung Bing-him (director) and other shareholders, the attendance representing 13,170 shares, notice convening the meeting having been read, the Chairman said in part:—In connexion with the accounts, there is very little for me to say. With low prices ruling for the major part of the year, a loss on the year's working was only to be expected. The average price received from the sale of our crop was 7d. per Ib. against 1/8 for the previous year. The loss on the year's working amounts to is. 8,441.90 which deducted from the amount of Ts. 14,255.27 brought forward from last year's account still leaves us with a credit batanve of Ts. 5,813.37, which the directors recommend carrying forward to next year's accounts. Fortunately our financial position is fairly secure: we have liquid assets amounting to roughly Tls. 40,000 and this should enable the estate to carry on for several years to come.
The working of the estate during the year has continued satisfactorily and costs showed considerable improvement over all previous years. The all-in cost of production for the year under review was 9d. being a reduction of nearly wd_ per Ib. on last year's figure, As regards labour, we have ample for present requirements and the health of the force continued satisfactory throughout the year.
During the year 2,424 trees were removed, leaving a stand of an average of 77 trees per acre. The principle of thinning out unremunerative yielders was continued and tests of the yielding capacity of every individual tree were taken. On a small portion of the estate, the average is down to between 30 and 40 trees to the acre and tests of this area have shown a remarkable improvement in yields with corresponding reduction in costs. The work of thinning out will be proceeded with in order that the gradual attainment of around this number of trees per acre is arrived at.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.