CO882-(8-9) — Page 29

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Since the year 1889 the Company had been joint proprietors with the New Singapore Harbour Dock Company of the Singapore Tramway Company, Limited. The Tram Tramway Company. way (a steam tramway) ran from the premises of the New Harbour Dock Company, past the property of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company to Collyer Quay, while in another direction the line ran from a junction in Tanjong Pagar Road near the entrance to the Tanjong Pagar Docks to Rochore, a distance of about three miles from the Company's premises. The New Harbour Dock Company had purchased the undertaking in 1889 for $188,000 and that Company and the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company each held an equal joint interest, the purchase on behalf of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company having been approved by its shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting held on the 18th December, 1889. The section of this line which ran from the junction in Tanjong Pagar Road to Rochore was chiefly used for the carriage of passengers and for some time past had proved unremunerative, owing to the competition of jinrickshas. In 1892 it was decided to close this section. The section between the New Harbour Dock and Collyer Quay was still kept open, though it had never yielded any profit, but it was decided to keep it running as a necessary adjunct to the Company's business, in facilitating goods traffic between the wharves and the business portion of the town.

In the year 1888 the Company first commenced to purchase shares in a Slipway 1893. Company situated at Tanjong Rhu on the eastern side of the Singapore Roads, a Tanjong

Rhu Blip. distance of some three miles from the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company's wharves.

way Com-

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :---

mmimmin TILLC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

The Slipway Company was originally known as Campbell, Heard and Company, pany. and had been registered under the Indian Companies' Act, 1866. By special resolu- tion passed on the 18th April and confirmed on 2nd May, 1889, the name was changed to the "Singapore Slipway and Engineering Company, Limited." That Company was duly registered on the 28th May, 1889, under the Companies' Ordinance, 1889, with a capital of $100,000 divided into 1,000 shares of $100 each. The land on which its property stands belongs partly to the Slipway Company, and partly to the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company. The land which belongs to the latter Company and is in the occupation of the Slipway Company is occupied by that Company without any agreement as to tenancy; the Slipway Company pays annually to the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, in respect of the occupation of the land, the sum of $1,609.02.

In 1893 the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company had acquired 322 of the Slipway Company's shares, which were valued in the balance sheet at the sum of $16,065.

By this time they had also acquired 128 shares in the New Prye River Dock Company, valued in the balance sheet at $10,379.

A dividend of 10 per cent. was again paid in 1893.

On the 1st June, 1894, the tramcar service between the New Harbour and 1894. Tanjong Pagar Dock Company's premises and Collyer Quay was finally discontinued, and the undertaking was abandoned.

Premises numbers 5 to 9, Collyer Quay, which for many years had been occupied by the Company as a town office, were purchased for the sum of $55,000.

The Company's rates were raised from the 1st July, 1894, to meet the losses caused by the fall in exchange rate of the dollar. The nett profits for the two half- years were $106,641.02 and $204,411.35 respectively. Out of this a dividend for the year of 14 per cent. was paid, and a balance of $32,941.34 was carried forward. An electric light installation was erected at the busiest part of the wharves, to facilitate work during night time.

By this time the Company had secured 340 shares in the Slipway Company, and 258 shares in the Prye River Dock Company. The result of the working of this latter business appears for the first time in the balance sheet for the last half of the year 1894.

The accumulated credit balance, amounting to $44,900.87, was carried forward to a Reserve Fund.

Reserve

In 1895 a dividend of 14 per cent. per annum was declared. A special Reserve 1895 Fund of $125,000 was created, with a view of gradually extinguishing the Company's Fand debentures, which by this time amounted to $1,000,000. On the 1st May, 1895, the Lease of Company rented for ten years the wharf known as Jardine's Wharf, which lies to Jardine's

Wharf.