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CORRESPONDENCE.
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]
A SUGGESTION FOR THE ACTING D.P.W.
#6
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS,”
Hongkong, 1st April. SIR.-It would be an undoubted convenience
to visitors to the Peak district via the tram- line if name-plates were affixel outside the Plantation Road Station, showing which was Barker Road and which Plantation Road. I have known visitors, on more than one occasion, go wrong, and be put to no inconsiderable amount of inconvenience and annoyance, which would certainly not have happened if the names of the two roads above mentioned had been in sight. I am fully aware that two name-plates do exist, lower down, at the junction of the Peak and Plantation Roads; but, as practically one nowadays, except carrying coolies, passes up and down by that ronte, they are not of much use.
no
There is no sign at either end of Barker Road to tell a stranger what road he is on. I feel sure that the present Acting D. P. W., who is nothing if not practical, will take the hint and remedy the omission complained of.— Yours, etc.,
HILLS.
GREAT EASTERN AND CALE- DONIAN GOLD MINING
LIMITED.
CO.,
An extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the Great Eastern and Cale- donian Gold Mining Company, Limited, was held at the offices of the general agents, Messrs. Lütgens, Einstmann & Co., 14, Des Voeux Road. on Wednesday, 3rd inst., at noon, for the purpose of considering, and, if thought fit, passing the following resolu ion :---
"That the Company be wound up voluntarily and that Max Bennecke, the business manager of the Company in New South Wales, be and he is hereby appointed liquidator for the pur- pose of such winding up."
Mr. R. C. Wilcox presided, and there were also present:-Messrs. G. Atzenroth, A: Deni- son (directors), C. Osmund, F. F. Eça da Silva, Chan Kin Hoi, K. Edulji, C. E. Osmund, Ellis Kelly, R. M. Mehta, Carl Georg, Ezekiel, 8. A. Joseph, Guimaraes, K. Wibel, G. Engel,
and C. Mittell.
The notice convening the meeting having been read,
The CHAIRMAN said he would first confirm the minutes of the last private meeting of the shareholders held on 23rd March
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
with our own mine, I will readto you our manager's last report. He says in a letter dated 4th March: -"In my last letter of 26th February I told you already that the air in the prospecting shaft was bad, and on account of the hot weather since it became worse and the contractors tried to hack out of their contract. To procure better ventilation I made an agreement with Long to drive from his workings north and make connection with the small drive in our shaft at 258. per foot The distanca is about 15 feet, and he is to commence to day. This connection had to be made anyhow, but I intended to do it after sinking 30 feet aud by driving from the shaft to the South. shall get a few tons of quartz from this drive, and shall run it through the battery at the first crushing of Long and the Tributors. On the 1st inst. I measured the sinking done by the contractors, and found it to be 11 feet. That is all he tells us, and it is not very encouraging. Of course Long's claim may turn out good, and it may not. Our shaft adjoins it, and it may afford as a chance, but I think it is a slender one, too slender indeed to warrant us putting up more capital. However, I have come to the conclusion-and I think a conclusion which will be endorsed
[April 6, 1901.
into account, to say nothing of the little odds and ends. If you accept the offer en bloc as it stands on the ground, you will of course get much less than if you took it apart and sold it - piecemeal. At least you should get 100 per cent. more by sending it to the next station. To accept an offer for the plant as it stands you' will simply slaughter the machinery.
Mr. ELLIS KELLY—I think it would be as well to ask Mr. Georg to get an offer for it, or get some one down there to do as he suggests ;** take the plant to pieces and sell it piecemeal. He has lots of friends there, and we could give him a commission for his trouble. I move that he be asked to do so.
The CHAIRMAN—Yes, Buy suggestion in rea- son that would enable us to secure a larger sum would of course be worth enter nining
Mr. MEHTA-I beg to second it. He is fami- liar with the mines, and no one has worked for the company better thau he has. He certainly would do better than any one else,
The CHAIRMAN--This meeting is only called to pass the resolution which has been published, and which bas just been read to you. I cannot receive any other, but any suggestions you make will receive attention.
Mr. CARL GEORG There are certain firms
The CH IRMAN-Your remarks shall be con.. veyed to the general manager on the spot, and he will be put on his guard. He will be in- structed to sell it in sections or to the best ad- vantage. If there are no other questions, I beg to propose the adoption of the following resolution:
by every shareholder that it is better, in the in Sydney who make it a business to do present state of the market with regard to that kind of thing. They buy machinery on mining concerns generally, that we should the ground, and then they take it to pieces, and liquidate. If we went on we might call up-reap a great profit by it. I make these re 25 cents, and even the dollar, and if we had marks in order to put you on your guard to liquidate then we should have nothing to against those kind of people. call up, and nothing to liquidate with. That would hardly be wise, I think. We have telegraphed down to the mines and asked Mr. Bennecke to see if he could get any offer for the property and he replied that he has been offered £1,000 for the whole of the property and that the offer would not last longer than April 30th. Well, gentlemen, that is not a very brilliant offer, but it is the best he can get. We shall, of course, instruct him to try and get a better offer. I think our property is worth a great deal more than £1,000, but we shall have to take the best we can get. And now, before proposing the resolution, upon which we have been called together to-day I shall be glad to answer any questions which may be put to me, or hear any suggestions which any share holders may have to make.
Mr. 8. A. JOSEPH-What are the financial prospects of the Company? Will the pre- ference shareholders get the value of their shares ?
The CHAIRMAN replied that they had got here and at the mines about $5,000, a little more or less a little more, he thought. Of course preference shareholders holding rdinary shares would have to pay up on ordinary shares, and preference shareholders who hold preference shares only were entitled to payments if they had anything to pay with. He presumed that they would take the dividend.
"That the Company be wound up rolun tarily and that Max Bonnecke, the business manager of the Company in New South Wales, bo and he is hereby appointed liquidator for the purpose of such winding up."
Mr. ĈARL GEORG-One moment, sir! Are you going to make a call? Last year, you will remember, in your speech you referred to the liability of the preference shareholders and I suppose the position to-day is the same as last year. How much have we got to pay? Are the preference shareholders to be paid in full ?
The CHAIRMAN-As far as it is possible, I will answer yon. I am in hopes that there will be no necessity for making any call. We shall do it in this way. Those ordinary share- holders who hold preference shares, we shall place one against the other and we shall only have to pay on the balance.
Mr. CARL Georg I cannot understand it quite. If a man has got 2,000 prefer- ence shares and 1,000 ordinary shares will he be paid on the 2,000 preference shares in full, and have to pay a call on the 1,000 shares in
Mr. CARL GEORG thought that £1,000 was much too small an amount for the machi-proportion? nery: it was worth three times as much. If the property was taken to pieces and sent to the nearest railway station, some 14 miles d ́s- tant, it would fetch at least about twice as much as the amount offered.
The CHAIRMAN-What would be the cost of the cartage?
last, which Was 80 poorly attended that they had decided to convene the present one, and continued :—Gentlemen, I am sorry that we have to meet under such circum- stances as the present, which have been brought about by the state of our finances. As I told you at the previous private meeting, we were driven to this alternative, or else that of making a call. Now, I do not think for a moment that Mr. CARL GEORG-About a pound a ton. there is any chance of our getting any call which As far as I can remember, there are 200 tons may be made, or, at all events, from more than a weight of machinery. There are 6 frue vanners. very small portion of the shareholders, and I am which alone would cost £200 when new, and quite sure we shall not succeed in getting in a they are absolutely new to-day and easily sale- sum sufficient to onable us to obtain a returnable. They are in request just now, and would on our capital. We have only a dollar to call up, and that would not carry us far, or enable us to develop our property to any extent. Besides, the basis upon which a call could be made is a very slender one. We have not very encourag- ing reports from the mines, and our only hope appears to be in the prospecting shaft on the Great Eastern mines, the one near to the claim which Long is working and which has turned out successful for the pre- sent. But we never know how long it will last, for our experience has been that these finds fizzle out in rapid succession. You strike a patch of gold, and you sometimes get rich results, but more often than enough they are but moderate results. I do not think these mines have done much better; they have cer- tainly sunk deeper, and raised more ore. To deal
command a ready sale. They should fetch at least between £600 and £700. Then there is an absolutely new winding plant, which should fetch from £400 to £450. The two boilers, engines and grinding pans are easily saleable, and the whole should not fetch less than £2,500, if properly managed.
The CHAIEMAN-I think £1,000 is a very low offer, and I may say we are not prepared to accept it.
Mr. CARL GEORG.-It should fetch even more than 12,500, for there are, besides the plant I have mentioned, all the corrugated iron on the sheds, which would easily sell, and which at present is worth much more than at the time it was bought. Spelter has gone up in price considerably. Then there is the timber-Oregon pine-that has to be taken
The CHAIRMAN-I think he would be paid in full. I am bound to tell yon that if there are not sufficient assets there may be a call. In any
case the ordinary shareholders, or most of them, are preference shareholders, and so to speak they would only be paying out of one pocket to put it into the other.
Mr. CARL GEORG-Then the preference shareholder gets the full amount of his shares ?
Mr. S. A. JOSEPH said the question resolved itself into this. If there were 54,000 preference shareholders out of which 31,000 were owned by shareholders who hold ordinary shares, there would be a balance of 16,000 upon which the company would have to pay, if there was any call, but the balance was so small that a call was scarcely likely.
The CHAIRMAN-I think you may take its for granted that it will work out properly. I do not think there will be any difficulty about better terms can it. I am rather sanguine be obtained than in this offer we have received. The resolution was then seconded by Mr. ELLIS KELLY, and on being put to the meeting was carried on a show of hands by 13 to 3.
The CHAIRMAN said the resolution which had just been carried would be submitted for confirmation as a special resolution to a second extraordinary general meeting, which would be convened to take place on 17th April.
That concluded the business.