406
PUNJOM MINING CO., LD.
The following is the report for presentation to the shareholders at the seventh ordinary
general meeting :
Gentlemen,-The Directors have now to submit to you their report on the working of the company and a statement of accounts for the year ended 31st December. 1903.
From these it will be seen that the hope expressed in the last report that a more flourish ing state of affairs would exist at the end of the year has not been realised, which may be accounted for by the fact that the country comprising the area of our operations has proved to be too broken up, too disturbed by volcanic action, and the auriferous land too patchy to be relied upon. To persist in carrying on unre- munerative work in this land any longer was therefore not considered expedient.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Marine Insurance Accounts Payable
PROPERTY AND ASSETS,
Cost of estate as per last account Development of Concession.... $ Main and Kladi Dams
Buildings
Roads and Bridges...
8,118.26 32,356.65 20,125.94
12,334,86
Machinery, Plant & Equipment 73,273.13 12,320.27 Cyanide Plant Purtable Tram-line and Trucks 27,947.05
Furniture at Mines..... Furniture at Head Office..
Block Carts and Live Stock Stores on Hand
190.49
72,935.71
113,540.75
[May 30, 1904. The jury after a short absence found both 9,065.47 prisoners guilty on the first count by six to one, His Lordship in passing sentence said they $683, 186.45
had had a very careful trial. He quite agreed $165,379.37 with the verdict of the jury that these two people had been cleverly plotting to deceive the Squatters' Board and get a Crown lease to which they had not the shadow of a title. Had they been the son and daughter of the deceased lessee his Lordship could have understood them thinking they had some sort of right to use his name. But they had no right at all. They were perfect strangers on this land and had never had in 2,594.73 any way a lease from the deceased man. They got it either from his young son or from the man who alleged he was the purchaser. If they had disclosed the true facts to the Squatters' Board the Board would never have given them a Crown lease. They had done a very wrong and wicked thing, and his Lordship had no doubt that the Government had been cheated out of dozens of such claims which had not been found out and could not be found out. It was a very important thing to the public that people should know 500.00 they could not do these things with impunity and then be found not guilty. They would each to prison with hard labour for twelve
go months. He thought the female prisoner was the worse of the two.
2,117.30 467.43
711.27 13.441.22 3,147.66
130.29 308.44
Timber on Hand
Accounts Receivable
Cash at Mines ..
Do.
Singapore
2,263.31
& in hand at B'kg. 13,402.79
Do. Do.
17,300.15
328.09 Hank, Kuala Lumpor
4,773.32 4,273 32
Less advances received......
Working Account, balance at
debit 31st December, 1942... 261,000.93 Woking Loss for year ending
31st December, 1903...
In view of this fact the directors decided to obtain the opinion of an impartial mining expert to report fully upon the property, which would enable them to determine how much of the Gold Bullion in Transit (estimated value) concession it would be necessary and advisable to retain and to develop. In pursuit of this G. decision they negotiated with Mr. C. Warnford Lock, General Manager of the Raub Australian Gold Mining Company, Limited, who, having consented to undertake the work, made two protracted visits of inspection and has given an exhaustive report with an opinion upon the property, which is bareto appended. This report is considerably enhanced in its importance by the fact of it | Dr. being compiled after frequent exchanges of views with and from reliable information gained, in regard to the geological formation of the country, from Mr. Scrivener, the Federal Geologist, who accompanied Mr. Lock through- out.
The directors recently receive noticed from the Government of Pahang that no exemption for non-compliance with the Labour Clause of the lease would be made for the year 1903, and that if the company was not prepared to provide the necessary amount of working capital to carry out genuine development work within six months from the 1st March last, the lease would be liable to forfeiture.
The future of the company depends on the value of the promising reefs discovered in the northern portion of the concession and referred to in paragraphs 31 to 37 in Mr. Lock's report. The directors therefore are loth to advise the shareholders to abandon the property without an attempt being made to get back some of the capital sunk in the southern district.
Owing to the low state of the company's finances, the directors deemed it prudent in March last to ** shut down rather than to incur the responsibility of debt; consequently a tele- gram was despatched to the manager at the mines instructing him to "shut down as soon as possible." No further work was afterwards
done;
the foreign staff and Asiatic labourers were paid off; all accounts and outstandings settled; and the property is now entrusted to the care of Mr. Hangan and three policemen.
DIRECTORS.
Mr. Thos. Howard, having been compelled to leave for England owing to ill-health, applied for leave of absence and subsequently sent out s letter of resignation. Mr. W. Ĉ. Jack was invit- ed to join the Board, and sat until his departure
for home last month.
R. CHATTERTON WILCOX, Chairman.
The accounts are as follows:-
BALANCE-SHEET.
31st December, 1903. CAPITAL AND LIABILITIES.
Authorised Capital :-
60,000 ordinary shares at $11 $660,000.00 30,000 preference shares at $130,000,00
690,000,00
Paid-up Capital
48,810 ordinary shares at $11 509,410.000 5,677 ordinary shares at $10,5 59,608.50 6,975 ordinary shares at $10' 69,750.00 688 ordinary shares at $9 (forfeited).
6,192.00 350 ordinary shares not alloted
60,000
644 960,50 28,964 preference shares at $1...... 28,964.00
1,036
not allotted
30,000
+1
..
$673,924.50
To
16,501.92
43,436.89
304,437.82
$683,180.45
WORKING ACCOUNT Year ending 31st December, 1903.
$ 0.
Operations at Mines
$ 40,067.40
Fees to Sultan of Pahang.
1,210.00
"
Prospecting
10,840.61
31
General Management and Expenses at
Mines...
"
Panggong Office Expenses
1.
Royalty on Gold
21
Salaries, Wages & Head Office Charges
Insurance
Exchange
Telegrams
Agency Fees..
"
Directors' and Auditor's Fees.
Fir, wood
11
"
off as bad
11
Personal Accounts at Minese, written
By Return of Gold Winnings.....
Interest
19
Transfer Fees
55
Balance Losa as per Balance Sheet.
SUPREME COURT.
Friday, 20th May.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
12,955.45 3,841.53 1,834.09
5, 93.17 448.5
767.5,
116.10
2,400.05
5,100,00
141.75
263.52
$85,094.72 41,275.95 347.88 34.00
$41,657.83 43,436.89 $35,091.79
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR WILLIAM M. GOODMAN (CHIEF JUSTICE.)
CONSPIRACY,
Evidence was resumed in the case in which Ng Tseung, an old Chinaman, and Hon Him, his wife, were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of law and justice by pretending to the Squatters' Board that the first prisoner was the lessee of a plot of Government ground at Mati (the lessee being in fact dead), by which means the lease was allowed by the Squatters' Board; the man was also charged with com- mitting several fraudulent acts before the Board, thereby obtaining the lease.
They pleaded not guilty, and were defended by Mr. E. H. Sharp, K.C. (instructed by Mr. F. Paget Hett, solicitor, of Mr. G. K. Hall Brut- ton's office). The prosecution was conducted by Hon. Sir Henry S. Berkeley, Attorney- General (instructed by Mr. F. B. D. Bowley, Crown Solicitor). The following jury heard the case:-)
-Messrs. H. C. Cunningham, F. W. White, S. E. Moses, J. T. d'Almeda e Castro, R. Walpole, A Schmidtborn, arid L. Kerr.
The evidence for the Crown had been com- pleted on Thurday.
For the prisoners, the defence set up was that they acted in good faith, and that the occupiers of the land in question had for many years past invariably adopted the name of Chan Cheung (the name of the late lessee) in the same way as they had done.
This closed the Sessions.
IN SUMMARY JURISDICTION,
BEFORE HIS HONOUR T. SERCOMBE SMITH
(PUISNE JUDGE),
WRONGFUL DISMISSAL,
W. Lansdowne, late stage manager with Leavitts Entertainers, sued M. B. Leavitt, pro- prietor of the company, for $1,000 in respect of wrongful dismissal in Hongkong on 15th April. Mr. O. D. Thomson, solicitor, appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. D. V. Steavenson, of Messrs. Deacon, Looker, & Deacon, solicitors, for the defendant.
|
The evidence of the plaintiff Lansdowne was taken de bene esse, as he is in hospital suffering from typhoid fever. It appeared that during the performance in the Theatre Royal on the day in question some trouble arose between the plain. tiff and Madame Zancig, one of the company. She wanted the stage cleared, and he told the property boy to do it. To this Madame Zancig objected, as the property boy was supposed to go down among the andience and respond to her husband's call for volunteers to be put under his hypnotic influence. She told the boy to go down to the auditorium. A dispute followed. Madame Zancig complained to her husband that Lansdowne had insulted her. Professor Zancig challenged Lansdowne about the affair. In the course of the altercation that followed Lansdowne shook his fist at Zancig, where- upon, plaintiff alleged, Zanoig struck him on the eye. On the afternoon of the next day, Lansdowne was standing in the bar at the City Hall when Leavitt happened to pass. Plain- tiff asked him if he had decided whether he (Lansdowne) or Zaneig was in the wrong. Leavitt said he had made enquiries and had come to the conclusion that Lansdowne was in the wrong and that he had not spoken to Zancig about it. Lansdowne then said, "You are no- Leavitt replied, thing better than a louse."
You're finished right here," and gave him his discharge,
His Lordship held that as there was a con- tract between the parties there was no justifica- tion for the dismissal; the expression complained of was used in the bar and not in the theatre proper. He accordingly gave judgment for the plaintiff for $400 with costs.
Wednesday, 25th May.
IN ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIE WILLIAM M. GOODMAN (CHIEF JUSTICE).
A STEAMSHIP COMPANY DISPUTE.
Leung Wing Hing, Chiu Kit U, and Wong Chung Kee, shareholders in the Chins 8.8. Co. of Hongkong and Macao, Ld., applied for an injunction against Chan Ip Tong, Lee Kwan Ting, Wong Shiu Ping, Tang Kwan Shan,
$
1