July 2, 1896.]
Mr. Keswick seconded the motion and the resolution was put to the meeting and carried unanimously.
The Chairman then moved and it was seconded: "That a dividend of 8 per cent., as recommended in the report, be and is hereby declared payable on 4th Jane." Carried unani- mously.
Mr. Reid moved that the retiring directors, Mr. James Macandrew and Mr. Wm. Keswick be re-elected. Mr. Watson seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously,
Mr. Hutton proposed the re-appointment of Messrs. Turquand Youngs and Co.. on the usual terms. Mr. Glover seconded and it was carried.
Mr. E. T Agius, who had previously referred to the loss of Mr. McGregor, hoped that the shareholders would join the directors in offering an expression of condolence to the bereaved family. He said it appeared to the shareholders that it would be well to leave it to the directors to formulate the resolution.
The Chairman said he thought the course proposed would be agreeable to the meeting. The proposal was that a resolution of con- dolence to Mrs. McGregor and her family be offered on behalf of the shareholders, and that the resolution be drafted in suitable terms by the board.
con.
This was put to the meeting and carried nem. Mr. Hutton proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman and board of directors and the staff of the Company in China for the very able manner in which they have conducted the affairs of the Company during the past year. He felt gratified at the results of the management, and was certain that in China the staff must have found a vast deal to do during the past twelve months. It would be well that they should convey to them the thanks of the shareholders. The satisfac- tory results which had been achieved had been in a large measure due to the staff in China as well as to the directors at home.
The resolution was seconded and carried unanimously.
The Chairman-On behalf of the directors and the staff I beg to thank the meeting for this vote which you have so kindly passed. We will convey to our General Agents, Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Co., and the staff in China their participation in the vote. I am sure it will be highly satisfactory to them.
THE RAUB GOLD MINING CO., LIMITED.
The adjourned annual meeting of the Raub Gold Mining Co. was held at Brisbane on the 22nd May, Mr. de Burgh Persse presiding,
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The CHAIRMAN said-This meeting, origin- ally called for the 8th May, was adjourned to the 22nd, as an act of courtesy to the Singapore Board. They-the Singapore Board-cabled asking that their letter of the 13th April might be permitted to arrive before the general meet. ing was held, but unfortunately our notices calling the meeting were already ont, and the only way the difficulty could, in some degree, be overcome was by an adjournment. New
be introduced business cannot proxies arriving after the 6th instant be used to vote with; still the delay has put us in possession of the full views of the Singapore Board on certain matters which I shall presently bring before you, and these views must necessarily influence the future conduct of our business to a very great extent, being as they are the expressed opinions of our colleagues in immediate touch with the working of the mine at Raub. First, let me move the adoption of the report and balance sheet, and it is matter of much satisfaction to my fellow directors, both here and in Singapore, and to myself, that the statement we have to lay before you shows such marked improvement on those of former years. During the past year gold of the net value of £22,341 178. 11d. has been won from the mine, as compared with £12,165 12s. 6d. during the previous twelve months, thus con- verting a debit balance of £1,389 138. 10d. into a credit balance of £4,269 16s. 1d., from which a dividend of 6d. per share has been declared and paid on the 18th instant. Now, as regards the work of the year. For details I refer you to
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
deficiency.
Mr. Bibby's very excellent report, though he somewhat lets his enthusiasm run away with him when he says:-" Great improvements have also been made in transporting the ore from the mines to the mills. This has all been done out of the profits of the mine, and without asking Had it any assistance from the shareholders. not been for the cost of these improvements several dividends could have been paid, as well as the one I have recommended to be declared at the end of March." He falls into an error in thinking that all this has been done out of the “profits of the mine." The principal improvement in transport-namely, the "railway," has not, as you will see, been charged to profit and ss account, but to capital account, and while it is no doubt true that part of the expenditure at Raub, more particularly that incurred in sinking the permanent shafts, might perhaps be spread over a number of years, your directors of both boards have preferred to continue the safe and conservative plan they have followed from the beginning, of only treating as assets those items which had a positive and tangible value, and of leaving everything else to be borne by revenue. Dividends can only be paid out of profits which have been setually earned, and in a mining com- pany this rule is always applied in its strictest sense. Our available balance is, I have stated above, £4,269, or somewhat less than the dividend, £4,750; the arushings of March and April have, however, more than covered the The matter which calls for most serious consideration is contained in those paragraphs of Mr. Bibby's report which recom- mend that the battery should be increased to 100 head of stampers-an addition of eighty head-the whole to be worked by electricity, at an estimated expenditure of £35,000 to £40,000. This recommendation has formed the subject matter of a circular issued by the Singapore board to shareholders on the Singapore re- gister, and copies of which were contained in the letter of 13th April, above referred to. The question of an electrical installation has formed the subject of much correspondence between the Singapore and Brisbane offices, and plans and specifications are now being perfected which will permit us to obtain a very clear idea as to what the electrical plant is really likely to cost. While, however, the boards are of one opinion as to the advisability of obtaining information, and also of increasing the battery power, the Singapore Board think that, subject to Mr. Bibby definitely recommending the scheme when the permanent surveys have been com- pleted and the estimates obtained, the work should be forthwith proceeded with, and that a series of calls at regular intervals should be made to defray the cost, Further, that at the general meeting-i.e. at that now being held & resolution should be taken authorising the boards to at once and without further reference to shareholders proceed to increase the stamp- ing power at Raub to 100 head, and also, subject to surveys warranting it, introduce electricity as the motive power for all the company's machinery. In other words, that the board should at once call up, in instalments, the whole of the company's unpaid capital. Your directors do not feel that they would be justified in adopting such a course, at least without first calling a special meeting of the company, at which the contributing shareholders may be fully represented. Proxies have been lodged, and I include to my statement those from Singapore, though they are not legally present, representing 43,215 fully paid-up shares out of a total of 50,000, and also 55,016 contributing shares, out a total of 140,000. To the latter must be added the shares of those holders now here, making perhaps a total of some 60,000 contributing shares. Of these contributing shares some 40,000 (I venture temporarily to leave the paid-up shares out of my calculation) are in favour of the Singapore Board's proposal, while the balance are in favour of a moderate increase of the existing plant, and there remain, therefore, some 80,000 shares not represented, and indeed which could not be represented owing to the distance from Bris- bane at which the holders reside. It seems to me it would be manifestly unfair to those share holders who are absent to commit them in the way it is proposed, without first giving them an opportunity of expressing their opinion, for they must clearly understand that it means the
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engagement of the whole of the company's capital in one venture, which, if not an assured success and within the limits of the contract, can have but one result, while shares with ́& series of calls attached to them are likely to be unsaleable and of little value during the "instalment period," however much they may in subsequent years. Moreover, recover electricity as a motive power is a very un- certain quantity, and plants for supplying it are apt (as we know, only too well, in this country) not only to cost more than the original estimate, but to fall short of their promises. A hot and wet climate, like that which obtains at Ranb, necessarily causes any plan which, in order to generate motive power substitutes a running stream for firewood, to be regarded with favour; but we want to be quite sure it will prove a success before adopting it and that the management can keep 100 stampers working and deal with the enormous quantity of 6,000 tons of ore per month, a task the magnitude of which has, I fear, been too lightly considered. When it is remembered what a long time elapsed after the second battery (of 10 stampers) had arrived at Raub before it was fully utilised, we may well pause and ask ourselves if the large increase now asked for will come quicker into play or have the desired result. Your directors feel that the wiser course will be to double the present crushing power by at once ordering an additional twenty-head battery, and then, when that has been proved insufficient to deal with the stone which can be raised, so again in- crease it. That shareholders, holding fully-paid shares, may have no grounds for complaint, calls and dividends could be made and declared simultaneously, and thus the necessary funds be provided without inflicting undue burdens on the contributing shareholders, who, after all, form the largest proportion of the company. I shall be glad, gentlemen, to hear your views, and that you may have an opportunity of speaking will close by formally moving the adoption of the report and balance sheet.
Hon, R. PHILP seconded the motion and ↑
44
in doing so deprecated increasing the crushing In Queensland, he said, power too rapidly.
no mine able to keep 100 head there was of stampers going at the present time. His experience was that for every mine that wanted machinery to crush stone nineteen out of twenty had machinery and had no stone to crush. He had been on almost all the new We cannot get file, and the cry had been: sufficient machinery;" but let them go back to the same fields afterwards and they would find most of the machinery hanging up for want of stone. They would not be justified in sanc- tioning more than the duplication of the Two letters from shareholders were also present capacity at the present time: read expressing similar views.
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The report and accounts having been adopted the following resolutions were passed :-
1.-That a special general meeting of the company, to be held on some convenient date in December next, be called to consider the pro- posals of the Singapore Board re increased crushing plant, with electricity as a motive power.
2.-That this meeting approve of action of the directors to increase the crushing power at Raub by an additional twenty-head battery forthwith.
The retiring directors were re-elected and votes of thanks were passed to Mr. Bibby and the directors.
HONGKONG.
on
Rain has fallen in considerable quantities during the past week and the reservoirs have consequently received a much needed- addition to their contents. The plague shows signs of True, there were eight cases the other days the dying out. one day, but number has been very low, Tuesday bringing The total, for the year not a single case. is now 1,181. The Criminal Sessions have occupied a good deal of time, and on the 24th ult. sentence of death was passed on the Wanchai murderer. On Monday the sailing* ship Glen Caladh caught fire in the harbour and very extensive damage was done,