The annual mesting of shareholders of the Batu Anam (Johore) Hubber Estates, Lid, was held. at the flees of the secretaries, Messrs. J. A. Wattle @ Coy Ltd 10 Canton Rosd, on April 6, those resent including. Mtr. C. F. Shacks teton (chairman, Sir Elly Kadooste and Mr. R. N. Swann. (directors) fand Mr. A. J. Welch" (secretary), he. Cotal nisnber of shaves tense: ented being' S82,967.
The chairman spoke as follow:—
Gentlomen,—The report and accounts having been "in your hands hed. period, T wil, any sake them 88
The result of the year's working shows a loss of $.$ 410223 as com-ared with a loss of S.§ 7,677.28 last year notwithstanding the fact that the average proceeds of the sales of the crop were 4d. less per pound, whilst the crop itself was 7,500 ibs, less than the previous year. This improvement has only been effected by a drastic cutting the down of all expenditure, and our thanks are due to the manager, the Straits agents and staff who have regards Shanghai, your directors as indicated at the last_annual meeting have waived their fees for the years 1930 and 1931 and your secretaries are not lonly now receiving ital of the Company was reduced from Tis, 400,000 to Tls. 40,000 by writing down the par value of the shares from one tael to ten candareens each and 560,000 new shares of ten candareens each were The result of was Tls. 360,000 bie for writing down the book value of the assets, This has been used to extinguish the del balance of profit and loss account, amounting to Tls. 18,359.21 and the remainder has been written off property account, After paying off loans and debts, the Company at December 31, 1933 had a surplus of liquid assets of Tis, 24,787.70, which should be ample to enable the company to vive the present world's financial crisis. You will notice in the profit, and loss account that a profit of Tis, 1,509.23 was made since the reconstruction, but this arose from the refunded fees and interest on new capital, and the period included August and September when the price of rubber made a temporary advance only to fall back to pre- [of vious low level During the year your board elo 'a contract for the delivery of the lo crop in the form of latex on tei which are satisfactory and this has avoided the heavy expenditure for replacement of the old worn out machinery, All possible economies are still being carried out and at the present time the total expenditure is nearly covered by proceeds of sal Turning to estate matters, the manager returned from home leave in Mi stand. reports having good, order his substitute during sence. No change was recorded in the planted area and notwithstanding the reduced upkeep the estate is in reasonable order and is kept free from noxious weeds. 'The slow but sure spread of root disease "con innes as it does in all old rubber gardens and naturally this will in the course of time reduce the productiveness of the areas, As the leompany owns a. large' area of Hiungie it may be possible when
tareas by planting up part of this eye baer to rence hee with material from proved' high yielding trees, This question can, however, be left for the time being. The tapping system at present in force allows as long possible for bark renewal and a large part of {the young area is now tappable. It not intended to tap this for the pre eat, but probably next year it wil ibe brought under the Knife and a Portion of the older area rested.
The health of the labour force has been fairly satisfactory as, in the reduction, those the least. fit were the first to go. During September and November the weather was abnormally wet and this resulted in a considerable loss of crop. For the current year a crop of 510,000 Ibs. is expected which is at the rate of 518 Ibs. per acre per annum and this can be called the foptimam crop.
There were no questions and the following resolutions were then put the meeting and pasced without dissent:
That the directors' report istement of recounts of presented Brier i Shackleton and seconded by Mr. BU. Swann, "That Bir.. F. Shackleton be elected" n director "of the company.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.