Mr. N. G. Maitland presided at the annual meeting of shareholders in the Bukit Toh Along Rubber Estates, Ld., held at the offices of Messrs. J. A. Wattie & Ca., Ld., on Thursday there also being present Mr. G. Grayrigge (dir-actor), Mr. C. J. L. Stewart (representing the secretaries) and other shareholders representing 45,070 shares.
The Chairman said:
'The directors' report and statement of accounts have been in your hands for some days and, with your permission, I will take them as read.
Our report on the working of the company's estates is so full of details that it leaves me very little to say. The old estate at Bukit Toh Along is practically in full bearing, and, as you will see from the statistics of output and tapping, is quite capable of producing the assessed allowance we have received under the restriction scheme at its present stage of development. Our estimate of production for the year under review was 345,000 Ib., but with the introduction of the Government restriction scheme, it was decided to rest the whole estate, and no tapping was done during the wintering months of February-March, the actual output for the year being 305,645 Ib. Owing to the fact that we were only tapping for_10 months of the year, statistics given in our report under the heading of output and tapping cannot be taken as exact from a comparative point of view, but I think you will agree with me that the figures for yield per tree per annum, 4.91 Ib., and yield per acre per annum, 385 b. are very reassuring after the somewhat pessimistic reports re¢eived from expert sources prior to.1917. This result is largely due to the foresight andi good management by our estate manager, Mr. H. D. Jensen, with the assistance of Mr. W. Noble, and I am sure you would wish me to record our thanks to these gentlemen for their efforts on behalf of the company during a very trying period. Mr. Jensen went on leave on May 5 last and Mr. Noble is acting as manager during his absence, with Mr. Williams as an additional assistant we have found it necessary to employ in undertaking the further development of the Kuala Kettil Extension.
The increase in the cost of production over last year's figure is due to payment to the European staff at the estate of a percentage of salaries due to them under their contracts, which they agreed to forego temporarily when the price of rubber was at its worst. The average price realized for sales of rubber was 9.83 d. The profit for the year, Tls. 11,748.50, which "may be considered satisfactory, brings the amount stand-and at credit of profit and loss account to Tls. 21,462.39, of which
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.