Wattie & Ca,, Ltd, Secretaries and General Managers. "Holders of 70,230 shares were represented at the mest-'The chairman in his speech said:—During the year the combined working profits of the three Java Companies, as shown by the Profit] and. Loss' Account, amounted. to Guilders 635,905.55 before deducting the Agency fees of Guilders 18,000. '<whien are im reality only a trans-for to the Shanghai company. Of this total Limburg Estate contributed a profit of Guilders 407,997.15, Diarangan Estate earned Guilders 244,132.14 whilst the Kali Glidike Company showed a loss of Guilders 16,199.76. This latter loss, in spite of the miserable price for coffee that ruled throughout the year under review, is some Guilders 6,660—less than'it was for 1936.
"You will have noticed. from the Profit and Loss Account, as published. that we had to provide the sum of Guilders 134,200—or say 178 per cent. of the net profit for company tax.
Net Protts The net profit, after providing for the above taxation and bonus to the estate staffs, which is shown in The accounts, was equivalent, at the rote of exchange ruling when these accounts were made up, to approximately Ch$i,109,4021 or say. Eh $224 per share out of which your] Alrectors are proposing that total fof Ch$150 per share shall be distributed by way of dividends for the year 1997, nid "This may seem to some of you be somewhat on the conservative side but I must point out to you that the estates owned by this Company, In common with those owned by most of the other Companies in Java, are faced with @ programme ff the gradual replacement of Coolie fines and other buildings which, for one reason or another, no longer accord with the. requirements of the Government inspectors. Machinery]
also, im some cases, now obsolete
ind more economical units" which replaced ly modern Should result ina reduction of the ost of production, For the year under review a total of Guilders 69,02545 was spent on apitol account, this is equivalent to approximately Ch.§140,000—, the bulk Of which was spent on development and replantings, new buildings und new machinery.
'For 1038. the estimates' originally] called for a further expenditure on Capital Account of some Ch.$200,000, Stout in view of, the changed con-Gitlons In' the industry as much as possible of this will. be postponed, subject, of course, to the approval of the Government Inspectors.
If you pass the recommendations for the disposal of the balance standing to the credit of the Profit and Lots account of the Shanghat Company, which I will propose later on, The surplus assets of all the come panies combined will amount to som Ghinese $202,000—, which is a very much more satisfactory position than that in which we commenced the year.
Planth Turning now to planting matters certain minor variations in the planted areas of the various estates were disclosed by detailed surveys that were completed but no shortage any consequence was discovered. T will touch upon the working of teach estate in sequence and wil Start with Limburg estate, our largest property. During the greater part of the year the supply of labour was sufficient but some temporary shortage was experienced during the periods when the Natives were en-[gaged in planting and harvesting their own crops or harvesting the crop for the neighbouring tapioca factory where higher rates of pay could be obtained. The health of the labour force, I am glad to say was satisfactory except in June when there were many cases of mal Certain areas for replant. Desert ing in: the near future were tapped drastically but otherwise tapping was of a high standard and the rate] juare'be of bark consumption and bark renewal was normal, Manufacture Zave no trouble and our product was Secepted readily by the dealers without adverse comment.
There was no serious outbreak of] disease and practically the only one that gave any trouble was Stripey Canker which occurred during the wet season, This however readily yielded to treatment where found.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.