An extraordinary general meeting: "of the British Flower Shop was held on Wednesday afternoon at the officers of Messrs, Scott, Harding Ca., 6 Peking Road, Mr. W. H. Barham, chairman, presiding. There: were present Messrs. J. C. Bosustow,.B.E., D. McNeill (directors), F. Ayscough, H. Hanbury and N, L. Sparke. i The chairman explained the sale of the company's property and, in proposing the first resolution, mentioned that the meeting was merely a step towards liquidation. un reference to this resolution be; said that should any shareholder desire any fund or benevolent institution to benefit under this _vesolution, he should. notify the liquidator before January 5 and it would be duly considered by the directors alt the distribution.
Mr. Ayscough said he would like to see some of the local charities benefit by the proceeds, as many of those who. subscribed were local for some days put every inch of two days there in July and furnish—y, idonts, the estate under water and it was ed the board with a very interest-some two or three weeks before ing report, going carefully into all The chairman suggested that Mr. tapping could be entirely resumed. matters of importance. He was Ayscough put his suggestion in You will have seen, however, from. very favourably impressed with the! "Titing, which he proposed to do, the report that, as far as the out-; condition of the estate generally, j The following resolutions were put of rubber was concerned, the phenomenal yield which was recorded for: December and January more than compensated' for the loss occasioned by the temporary cessation of tapping.
That care and economy have been exercised in the management is, I} think, evident from the accounts: which the board is able to present to. you to-day. With an output of 361,816 lb. producing in nett revenue an average price of only 264 cents per lb., it has been possible to make a profit on the year's working of Tls. 6,363.58, after writing; and. its economical administration,.then proposed and unanimously all latex being manufactured by, carried hand, as against the alternative "That, after meeting all liabilities, method of an expensive factory. the directors are hereby empowered He found the tapping good and the to divide the available balance bark renewal satisfactory. Con-between Allied War Funds, and/or siderable thinning-out needs to be' other charities or benevolent institu-done and this is receiving attention. tions, at their discretion,"—Mr. Grayrigge concludes his report Proposed by_Mr. W. H. Barham, by saying: "There is no tree, seconded by Mr. D. McNeill. disease on Samagaga and the place "That the company be wound up is excellently run." This tribute to the manager, I know, from per-Sheldon Wilkinson be and he is hereby appointed liquidator for sonal experience, to be thoroughly the purpose and that of such deserved and the shareholders may winding-up."—Proposed by Mr. congratulate themselves on having W.
LIH, Barham, seconded cly off the whole cost of maintaining the non-producing areas and Tls. 621.71 for depreciation. This last amount is lees than usual, but the reason is that the fixed assets of the company have been so heavily depreciated in previous years that now stand in the balance sheet at 9 figure which is almost nominal and far below the values put upon them by the manager.
The opening of the year 1922/23 marks a, definite stage in the progress of the company, in that the whole estate has emerged from the period of development into the period of production, all available Jand being now in bearing, comprising 9413 acres under rubber and 209} acres under coconuts. General charges, Shanghai charges and _repairs henceforth will be debited to revenue and the estimates for this year are made out on this basis.
Some two or three years ago, the cutting out of coconuts and replace ing them by rubber was under consideration, but the decline in the value of rubber decided the board to abandon the idea. Whether at some future time it may be reconsidered entirely depends upon the in Mr. Durston an asset which is; more valuable than any named inj} the balance sheet. Hoe was in! Shanghai for a week recently and the board, therefore, had a, further opportunity of discussing estate} matters with him. I hope next year to make my fourth visit to the estate and thus maintain the close touch which in my opinion is helpful, if not essential, when the pro-j perty is so far removed from the} board of management.
The formal resolutions were then carried.
Mr. F. Ayscough proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman and the committee for the hard work they had done for the company.
This was carried without dissent. M Cubitt made a suitable reply an expressed the hope that next year/ would be more satisfactory to the} shareholders.
This concluded the business of! the meeting. There were 85.100! shares represented.
THe Chinese press reports that' Ataman Siminiov left Shanghai for Nagasaki on Monday.
Mr. F. Ayscough, The Chairman:—A confirmatory meeting will be heid on or about January 9, to confirm the second resolution, This concluded the business of the meeting.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.