216
Dividend Fund, and therefore propose the fol- lowing appropriation of the profits, viz. :- Interim Dividend of $4 per shares
paid 30th August
To apply to reduction of property
soconnt
...$ 80,000.00
To apply to formation of Equiliza-
tion of Dividend Fund Final Dividend of $10 per share
making 814 for the
year Carry forward to next account
75,000.00
140,000.00
200,000.00 13,753.31
$508,753.31
CONSULTING COMMITTEE,
The Consulting Committee now consists of Hon, E. R. Belilíos, Messrs. F. A. Gomes, C. S. Sharp, David Gubbay and A. Haupt, who offer themselves for re-election : Mr. A. Haupt was invited to join the Board in place of Mr. St. C. Michaelsen, who resigned owing to his departure from the Colony.
AUDITORS,
The accounts have been audited by Messrs. Thos. Arnold and Fullerton Henderson, who offer themselves for re-election.
JARDINE, MATHESON & Co., General Agents. Hongkong, 10th March, 1898.
BALANCE SHEET-ONE YEAR TO 31ST DECEKDER, 1897. CÀPITAL AND LIABILITIES.
$ c. 2,000,000.00 1,757,821.01
Paid-up capital
Sundry creditors
Balance of profit and loss account$508,753.31
Less interim dividend at $4 per
share paid on 30th August, 1897
80,000.00
428,753.31
$4,186,674.32
1,606,493.81
ASSETS.
$
Property account, consisting of—
East Point Refinery
Bowrington Refinery.
Swatow Refinery.
Hongkong Distillery
Site at Soo-kan-poo
Cash
Raw and refined sugar, &c..
Spirits and rum, &c.
Charcoal, coal, stores, &c.
Sundry debtors
Shipments.
Less advance
2,036,397.91 831,070.66
To balance at debit on 31st De-
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[March 19, 1898.
THE GREAT EASTERN AND CALE | important industry new to Shanghai it was.
DONIAN GOLD MINING CO.,
LIMITED.
The following report has been received from the Manager at the Mines per steamer Men- muir :-
Mount MacDonald, 14th February, 1898. Prospecting Shaft Gold lease 37 has been deepened to 85 feet. We have put up here also a whip pole, as hauling by windlass is get ting far too slow. If I can let a contract ad- vantageously to sink the remaining 120 feet I shall do so.
Contract work is far more satisfac- shall arrange it as soon tory to a company and as possible for all our workings. There is no particular change to report here, only we are getting into more settled country and have now he same smooth and well defined footwall as in the Great Eastern. This is a good sign and we are confident of being on the right track.
Old Great Eastern Drive. Since my last report this shaft has been sunk 10 feet. From my first report you will remember that the huge reef had dipped north under foot at the end of the old drive and that the face of the latter showed very hard bar freely mixed with mineral. To get at the other shutes of gold higher up the hill this bar has to be broken through and there are now indi- cations that we have nearly done so. It has been a very tough job, the country being of the hardest stone intermixed with veins of asbes- tos, as per enclosed samples, and mineral carry- ing a little gold, which made boring exceedingly difficult.
&
Great Eastern Main Shaft is down to 130 | feet from the brace. The ground is getting better for sinking now. In lengthening the whip road here, we came across another reef, gold bearing and dipping in the direction of the other leaders. Our prospects in this hill are indeed very rosy. The latter reef comes from the Zulu line of reef.
The Zulu Main Shaft has been sunk another 8 feet, making a total depth of 91 feet from the brace. The water is getting a little less heavy 364.78 and we must soon have drained the old workings, when we shall be able to get on faster. The footwall in the north end of this shaft is highly intermixed with quartz streaks, carrying a little gold, and we shall in all probability soon cut another good shute of gold here.
836,699.88 7,587.69 300,662.98 229,537.93
1,205,327.25
PROPERTY-ACCOUNT.
$
cember, 1896...
Less written off last year.
$ 1,625,347.21 25,000.00
0.
To new machinery, &c.
By balance at date
Dr.
To commissions
PROFIT AND Loss AccoUNT,
To remuneration to Consulting Committee To auditors' fees
To Interest account
C.
The Caledonian Main Shaft has been very troublesome for the last week. We broke at
$4,189,674.32 last through the hard bar, but with cutting softer ground we got an enormous inrush of water from the old workings, so that for days nothing has been done but bailing, the men standing up to their waist in water. We are mastering it now and with it we see the water in the old workings reducing and when the latter are drained we shall have no more
1,800,817.21 6,146.60
$1,606,493.81
$1,606,493.81 trouble. The Champion shaft in the Gully is almost drained and I shall soon be able 1,006,493.81 to let you know the width of the lode at the bottom of it. This inrush of water (through floors) from all the old shafts and drives delays our sinking, of course, but with better ground we expect to soon make up for lost time. We 30,437.66 have bailed at no less a rate than 18,000 gallons of water per diem. The Caledonian shaft is now 92 feet from the brace.
To interim dividend at 4 per share paid on
30th August, 1897
To net balance
Cr.
By balance of profit and loss account, carried
from last year
To net gain on working
*
2,500.00 500.00 34,189.17
$ 67,626.83
80,000.00
147,626.83 428,753.31
$578,380.14
$
0.
Rain has been copious during the week.
LACU-KUNG-MOW COTTON SPIN- NING AND WEAVING CO., LIMITED.
The fourth General Meeting of the Laou- kung-mow Cotton Spinuing and Weaving Co. was held at the offices of the General Managers, Messrs. Ilbert & Co., on the 9th March. Present, Messrs. C. J. Dudgeon, Chairman, A. 2,221.08 Korff, J. W. Young, Chang Liang-yue, John 574,159 06 Stenhouse, A. W. Danforth, H. F. L. Bell, Harvey, W. T. Phipps, A. Cushny (Jr.), W. D. $570,880.14 Little, G. Biron, J. W. Guedes, Li Wei-kee,
Vander Stegen, and W. H. Drummond.
The Singapore Free Press says:-Dr. E. W. Von Tunzelmann, who will be well remembered here as the chief mover in the foundation of the Straits Medical Society, has returned to Singa- pore from North China, where he has been in private medical practice for several years. Dr. Yun Tunzelmann is settling down here once more for the practice of his profession.
The Chairman said-In proposing the adop- tion of the report and accounts, which I pre- sume you will be content to take as read, I would take the opportunity of saying a few words regarding the working of the Company since we met in April of last year. In my remarks at that meeting I said that the first year of the Company must necessarily be one largely of organisation, for in starting an
impossible to suppose that there would not be difficulties to contend with before smooth working was attained; in this expectation of difficulties we have not been, any more than I suppose have been our neighbours, disappointed. One trouble, however, that we have met with has been of an altogether unfortunate nature, namely, the late arrival of our machinery, caused by the strike amongst the machine. makers at home; this not only caused us a regrettablo increase in the cost of our plant, owing to the heavy fall in exchange which occurred in the middle of the year, but also delayed our work in an unfortunate manner, the result being that it was not until somewhat late in the year that we had what may be termed a working sufficiency of spindles running. The chief local difficulty that we have had to contend with has been the matter of labour, not so much as regards the quantity; there has been sufficiency enough of raw material, but the demand for trained labour has naturally been fur in excess of the supply, re- sulting in an exasperating independence amongst the work-people which has been a source of end- less trouble. I cannot say that this difficulty as regards labour has yet been overcome, but with the constantly increasing number of trained hands, things are working so much more smoothly, and as the leaven of training spreads the difficulty will finally disappear. We all know what the Chinese are, in what a conservative groove their minds run, and the difficulty is apparent of all at once converting an agricul- tural class-which is the class from which we mainly recruit-into a manufacturing class, but once get the change effected, once get these people into the manufacturing groove, and I confidently believe that Chinese mill-hands will be equal to any in the world. It may, I think, be fairly stated that our period of organisation is over, and that the training of our hands to more skilful working is now our main objective, but before leaving this subject I wish to make acknowledgment of how much our work of organisation has been assisted by the indefatig- able exertions of our Mill Manager, Mr. Men- phine; as one of the General Managers I am naturally qualified to speak of Mr. Menphine's work; he has certainly not spared himself, and his personal work, coupled with his con. stant supervision and patient instruction of the work-people, merits full recognition. There is oné anxiety, so often connected with new enter- prises, from which we have been altogether free, I mean anxiety as regards the working of the machinery, which from the starting of the first spindle has worked in all departments with absolute smoothness. I hope, and believe, there. fore that now with the mill in full and efficient working order, we are fairly started upon a period which will speedily prove to you in sub. stantial form the value of your property. Turuing to the accounts, we have followed the precedent of the other mills in publishing only profit and loss account and the balance sheet, though information as regards spinning account is open to any shareholder who may apply to the General Managers for it; the balance of profit of spinning account is Tls. 21,104.96, a result which in the circumstances may be con- sidered fully satisfactory. The entries on either side of profit and loss account about equalise one another, leaving a balance on this account of Tls. 21,108.57; the directors recommend that balance be carried forward, and I trust that you will agree in the wisdom of this policy, for I wish to say with perfect frankness, that so far as my book-keeping experience carries me, it is prac- tically impossible, in starting a first balance sheet covering a constructional period, to arrive
at absolute correctness as to the results of working; we therefore consider that this first balance of profit should be carried forward and not dealt with for the purposes of dividend, With regard to the balance sheet, I have no doubt that in the matter of cost of buildings and machinery, comparisons have to be made between the accounts now before you and the previously published accounts of the other mills, and if such comparison is based upon simple rule of three as to the cost of a 25,000- spindle mill as against the cost of one for 40,000 spindles, our expenditure will seem unduly high; I dealt with this matter in some measure in my remarks at our meeting in April, when I ex- plained that the directors had departed from