At the 15th annual general meeting of shareholders in the Shanghai Pahang Rubber Estate, Ltd, held fon Tuesday, at the office of the Estate, 2 Canton Road, the Chairman, Mr. A. W, Burkill, sai The report and accounts having been in your hands for some time, 1 will, with your permission, adopt the usual procedure and take them as read.
As you will note from the report, 61 acres were planted up during the bringing the non-producing ra' up to 285 acres and the vreage under cultivation to 1,042 acres. No further extensions are being undertaken at the moment.
The working of the estate was! normal and the trees in the mature and immature areas are reported to be in good condition. The move-and health of the labour force during the latter part of the year gave the acting manager some cause for anxiety. Owing to the majority of estates gradually in-greasing the acreage in tapping to, harvest more rubber to counteract! the decline in prices, some of our
estate by the promise of high wages tempera gre ential amy for the elsewhere. This matter, however is having the attention of the manager. who is confident of bringing the tapping fore up to full strength y the en Everything possible to improve the health the force has been done and the: Government has promised assistance regards forcing the owners of, joining small holdings to do their share of anti-malarial, work.
Turning to the accounts, in view of the price of rubber having remained below the pivotal price of Is. 9a. and the exportable allowance thereby ruling at the minimum of 60 per cent. throughout the year, there was a considerable reduction in the profit as compared with last The reduction in the output (of some 50,000 Ib. is reflected in the higher all-in cost of production of 10.124. per Ib. as against 9.904. per Ib. the previous year. For the next financial year, it is estimated that a crop of 300,000 Ibs. will be harvested at en fob. cost of 7.214. per Ib. Though it is impossible to forecast what will happen when Restriction is lifted at the end of October, and more rubber is inevitably thrown on the market, the company is ina sound financial position and the estate will be able to hold its own for some considerable time.
Before putting the resolutions to the meeting, 1 would like to take this opportunity of recording the Board's appreciation of the good work done by the acting manager, visiting agents and Straits agents: during a somewhat trying period.
If any shareholder has any questions to ask, T shall be pleased to answer to the best of my ability,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.