There were no questions asked at the annual meeting of the Shanghai [Sumatra Rubber Estates, Ltd, held lon Friday at the office of the general agents, 1 The Bund, and the meeting passed off without incident. The Jdircetors present were Messrs. W. R. McBain, chairmen, A. J. Welch and }H. Kadoorie, and 34450 shares were represented by the attendance.
his speech, the chairman sald:—With regard to the total acreage Jot the estate at the end of the finan-Jclal year, you will notice a diminution {in area of 1,000 acres from reserve wallable, now being stated at 231 Jacres, compared with 1,231 acres recorded in last year's report. This accounted for by the surrendering to the Government of 1,000 acres of Jresecve land, known as Tamaram }You will recollect that the chairman tthe last annual meeting informed Jyou that we had made a formal fapolication to the Government 10 Jgurrender this area, as it was swamp land, and unsuitable for planting, land by holding this area we naturally had to pay quit rent to the Govern-
Since the closing of the accounts, ]we have been informed by the agents Jot the company at Medan that recently the Government, for the Jcontrol of the restriction scheme in force, had completed an official survey of your Estate, which accord~ ing to our own records discloses a Jshortage of 114 acres in the planted Jas against 2,722 acres accord our previous records, Our inform us that they are unable to state how this shortage occurred, but jean only surmise that same Jcumulative, due to errors in calculations by our former Estate surveyor Jwhen measuring out various blocks {for planting purposes.
Total Crop Harvested The total crop harvested during the year amounted to 495,500 Ib., which realized Guilders 77,198.12, Jaiving an average price of guilder cents 1556 per Ib,, equivalent to 5.174. or Singapore Dollar cents 183 per ib, This includes a balance of $5,822 1b. of rubber unsold at October 31, 1935, the end of our financial year, which has since been Jdisposed "of. The standard Jassessment for 1938 for our Estate has been fixed provisionally ut }789,169 Ib., of which 60 per cent. is Jat present exportable.
Our agents have informed us that they are not satisfied with this Jassessment compared with that of Jother estates, and have appealed to the Government for reconsideration, [This crop of 495,500 1b. was harvested Jat a cost of 15.05 guilder cents, oF Jat present exchange equal approx!- mately to Sd. per Ib, compared with Jo crop of 689,000 1b. costing yullder Jcents 10.62 per 1b, or the equivalent Jot approximately '3%d. the previous year.
may mention here that the cost Jot production on your Estate may Jappear high compared with that on Jestates in the FINS. or Java where Jcasual' day labour is avallable, but It must be borne tu mind that Inbour Im Sumatra is recruited from Java under contract which is under Gov-
Jernment control, and supervision, therefore besides the higher wages paid to our labourers, necessary Jaccommodation, according to Government regulations, must be provided.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.