The tenth annual general meeting of the Cheng Rubber Estates, Ld was held on Tuesday afternoon at the offices of the Beeretaries,} Messrs. J. A. Wattie & Ca., Ld-,/the Mr, A. K. Craddock presiding." adopted.
Ta the course of his speech, the Chairman said 3 Before proceeding with the ordinary business of the meeting I wish to express the regret of the Directors at the loss the Board has sustained by the death of the late Mr. E. Jenner Hogg.
Mr. Hogg joined the Board in December, 1915, and up to the time of his death, during February of this year, took the greatest interest in the welfare of the company.
The working of the year under review resulted in a net profit of Tls. 21,929.77 which must be considered satisfactory.
Owing to the recent serious fall in the price of rubber the matter of keeping funds on hand to meet. any eventuality that may arise has had the serious attention of the board.
'As you are probably aware the Rubber Planiters' Association of Malaya, after consultation with the Rubber Growers' Association, London, recently issued a circular recommending that half of Estates, should be tapped on alternate days, so as to reduce output by 25 per cent. with a view to lessen the accumulation of stocks. The current requirements of the world, it is stated, are considerably below the normal owing to financial, political and labour difficulties, but it is clear that eventually demand will again overtake supply. In the meantime, however, stocks are accumulating to a large extent, and the obvious remedy is temporary restriction of output.
Your directors have approved of the recommendation, and alternate day tapping has been introduced on certain areas. This will naturally reduce our output and unless prices improve, our estimated income will also be smaller, under the circumstances your. directors do not consider it advisable to pay a dividend for the year, but recommend that the balance of profit and loss account, Tls. 34,730.13, as shown by the accounts be dealt with as follows Tis. To while off Development account, 3,991.39 To write off Buildings account 7,092.62 To carry forward" to next year's account Turning to the directors' report, you will note that the cost of production shows an increase over that of the previous two years, due principally to loss on rice issued to the coolies which amounted to $5,249.95, and loss on planting foodstuffs $1,194.77.
The estimate for the current year is given in the report as 250,000 Ib., but owing to certain
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.