}
94
increased dividend. It does not occur to me to make any further remarks, but I shall he pleased to answer any questions any shareholder way
desire to usk.
Hon. A. MCCONACHIE There are two ques- tions I should like to ask. The first is. Have you had a report from an independent_expert : about your mortgages? The second is. Do you place the interest on undeveloped properties to
the debit of revenue account?
The CHAIRMAN-The answer to your in- quiries is "No" in each case. No interest is charged at all on undeveloped properties.
Hon. A. MCCONACHIE Thank you.
Mr. C. S. SHARP Mr. Chairman. I think shareholders must have observed with grati- fication the increase in the revenne which the Company derives from its investments and pro- perty. I hope that this increase may be capable of expansion in the near future, because I notice that taking the amount invested in property and the rents derived therefrom we only ret 8 return of something like 4.15 per cent., or taking off the amount charged to repairs to house property, the return dwindles down to 384 per cent. You have just been good enough to tell us that several of the Company's undeveloped properties are likely to show a considerable increase, and I hope this will
prove to be the case. With regard to the matter of the Company's mortgages we have now advanced something like two-thirds of the capital on these mortgages, and considering the importance of this matter I think, if I might suggest it, it would be well for the Company in future to give some sort of report annually, as is done by other companies in Hongkong, as to whether these mortgages have been looked into and the properties afford satisfactory security for the amount invested. I do not think I have anything more to say.
The CHAIRMAN I am glad to say I am in a position to tell you that in every instance the mortgages are well covered. With regard to the first part of your remarks I may say that in the developed properties held by the Company there are only two instances. and these are small properties, in which these give us a return of less than 6 per cent. In every other instance these properties give a return of from 6 to 131 per cent.
One reason that the returu
of interest appears low is that there are many of the new investments made only very recently and cousequently their returns are only for the last few months of the year and not for the whole period under review.
Mr. SHAKI I see.
The CHAIRMAN As there are no further questions I beg to move that the report and statement of accounts as presented be adopted and passed.
Now sap-
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
cent.. while here we are receiving very little less than 6 per cent, on our original ontlay. It
.
MEY
seem out of place to mention consols and lauds in the same breath, but if you consider how safe and solid and strong this Company is, how free from speculative busi ness, aud how carefully it is managed and how much more closely than any other company its interests are bound up with the interests of the colony. I do not think you will find the comparison so far fetched. At any rate there is no other company in Hong- kong that so well deserves to be called the consols of Hongkong. While on the subject of consols and gilt edged securities there is one point I wish to put before the directors, and I do it with very great diffidence because I ani not sure that it is a very practical, proposal. Would it be possible to have land shares included amongst the list of securities. if there is such 8 list, which the law allows for the investment of trust funds? I know that a good many trustees would le glad to be able to put their money in lands if they could do so without breaking the law. I myself have had to invest money under a trust deed which distinctly states that the trustees can invest in any lawful securities. To the ordinary mind it would seem that there are many lawful securities in Hongkong, and it would never occur to him that land shares were i an unlawful security. Those who unfortunately | have had experience of the peculiar workings | of the legal mind will not be surprised to hear that I was advised that this clearly meant that I could not invist in any stocks af all in Hong- kong, so I had very reluctantly to put money on fixed deposit which I would more cheerfully have put in land shares. If the ilea is im- practicable it will do no harm if I call the attention of lawyers and capitalists to this point and ask them to bear land shares in mind when next drawing up their trust deeds. But the one point I wish to make, gentlemen, is if mortgages, consols, and Indian railway shares, and other stocks of that kind are held in such high favour by the law, why should land shares, which seem to me a much simpler and more convenient and more easily realisable form of investment in mortgages and laud, be excluded?
I have very much (Applause). pleasure in seconding the adoption of the report and accounts.
i
Mr. SHARP I should like to disclaim any desire to be unfriendly or unfair to the Com- pany. My remarks were male in a spirit of friendly criticism and nothing else. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. SHEWAN I think I said the error was nuintentional.
L
directors at their next meeting. The resolution was carried. On the motion of Hon. A
MCCONACHIE.
seconded by Mr. EDr. Messis. N. A. Siebs and M. D. Ezekiel were re-elected directors,
Mr. GEORG proposed the re-election of the retiring auditors, Messrs. F. Henderson and J.
Peter.
Mr. LEIGH seconded. Carried.
The CHAIRMAN-That concludes the business of the meeting, and I am very much obliged to you for your attendance. Dividend warrants will be ready to-morrow on application at the office. Those shareholders outside the colony will have their warrants posted to them where their addresses are known.
The CHAIRMAN--With reference to what Mr. SHEWAN I have very much pleasure in has been said about the investment of trust seconding the motion. and I congratulate the funds in laud shares I can only promise that management on the statement they have sub-the matter will receive the attention of the mitted and the improvements shown therein. I think Mr. Sharp, like the gentleman whe wrote to the Daily Press the other day- (laughter) has been unintentionally a little unjust to this Company. The amount invested on mortgages is not. I think, at any rate there is no reason to suppose it entirely cash belong. ing to the Company. Some of it is probably | C borrowed, for I see on the other side accounts payable amounting to 844200 edd. pose the Company, for the sake of argument. has borrowed $400,000, that would leave $2,100,000 cash advanced. and the return on that is about 8 per cent.. which is very different from what the writer in the Daily Press made ont, which was something like. I think, 6 per cent. I also notice an increase in the commis sion account from $73300 last year to 88,925.96 this year, which is also a gratifying improve- ment. The improvement may to some people seem slow and perhaps not very substantial. but still it is steady and gradual, and those people at once, nor can suitable tenants he found for them without loss of time; and loss of time means loss of interest, and loss of interest means loss of revenue. It is a mistake to expect large profits from this property all at once. This is not a speculative stock; it is a stock eminently for the cautious and careful investor who, above all things, seoks safety for his investments. (Hear, hear). Such an investor at home would receive from consols something less than 2 per
must remember that houses cannot he built all
[January 30, 1896.
THE HONGKONG ICE CO., }
LIMITED.
The following is the report for presentation to the shareholders at the fifteenth ordinary annual meeting to be held on the 5th February
ing to the shareholdes a statement of the Com- The General Managers have pleasure in sumit- Pany's accounts for the year 1895,
Including $1.939.02 Trought forward from last year, and after deducting $10,000 paid on thẻ 27th July last as an interim dividend of $2.0) per share, the balance at credit of profit and loss is 9.724.28, which it is recommended should Le appropriated as follows:-
A final dividend of $5.00 per share To write off property account To carry forward.......
$25,000.00 13,000.00
1,724.28
€ 9,724.28
In the near future it will le nexsary to renew a portion of the machinery, and it is with this in view that the amount above mentioned is recommended to be written off property account. ・・・
The accounts have Leeu audited by Mr. Thomas Arnold, whose re-election is recommended.
JARDINE, MATHESON & Co., General Managers..
Hongkong, 22nd January, 1891,
Property account Extension account
Invested in:-
ASSETS.
Hongkong Fire Insurance Company's share Canton Insurance Office's share...
-
Debenture of Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf
and Godown Co., Limited Cash on hand Hongkong & Shanghai Bank-current account Hongkong & Shanghai Bank-leposit account outstanding accounts
Accounts receivable Ice on hand Couls on hand
LABILITIES.
Capital account ... Accounts payable Unclaimed dividend account
Ammonia reserve account Profit and loss necount
PROFIT AND LOSS AUTOUNT.
To salaries, wages, and general trude expenses To General Managers' commission....... To auditor's fee...
To interim dividend of $2 per share paid on
27th July, 1895
To balance...
110,400.00
360.65
225.00
175.00
10,000.00
68.43
22,905.17
24,000.00 2,506.61 926.62 | 180.00 315.00
$171,662.48
By balance brought forward from last year By receipts for ice during the year, value of
stock on hand, &c.
By rent received less Crown rents and taxes paid By interest By transfer fees
C.
$ 125,000.00
4,749.47
: 506.18
1,682.55 39,724.28
$171,662.48
$ 悲
19,961.31 2,000.00 100.00
22.061.31
~10,000.00 49.724.28
$71,785.59
$ C.
·1,969.62
67,963.09
268.12
1,554.76
30.00
$71.785.59
THE KOWLOÙN LAND AND BUILD-
ING COMPANY, LIMITED,
The following is the seventh report of the Board of Directors to the ordinary meeting of shareholders to be held on the 30th January - The brothers Gaston and Ulysse Leriche, nf
Gentlemen, The Directors now subunit to you a the Mekong newspaper. published at Saigon, statement of the affairs of the Company and balance have been convicted of a libel upon M. Jour-sheet for the year ending 31st December, 1895. dan, the leader of the Saigon bar, and have each been sentenced to six months imprison ment and a fine of 2.000 francs, besides having to pay the costs of the trial and advertising the judgment in the local papers and three papers published in France. The libel complained of was in the following terms: It is our duty to declare to all the world and to the Governor that M. Charles Jourdan is nothing more than an old wastrel (gateux) The defendants did not appear at the trial and were sentenced in! their absence.
*
after writing off all charges and expenses, amounted The balance of profit and loss account for the year, to $3,21240. The Directors therefore recommend that a dividend of 80 cents per share be paid, which, after writing off the directors and auditors' fees, will leave a balance of $24-1.40 to be carried forward to the credit of a new profit and loss account.
DIRECTORS,
Mr. F. A. Gores has retired from the Board of Directors
Messrs. J. H. Cox and E. Jones Hughes retire by rotation, but offer themselves for re-election!