CO882-(8-9) — Page 45

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The docks at present owned by the Company are:-

Opened.

Name.

Width.

Length.

at Entrance.

Dimen-

Depth of water on Bill at highest Spring Tiden

Feet.

sions of

docks.

Feet.

Feet.

1868

Victoris Dock O. (T.P.)

450

65

20

1879

Albert Dock (T.P.)

480

1865

No. 1 (K.H.)

415

1869

No. 2 (K.H.)

444

1878

Prye (P.W.)

340

8 288

60

21

42

65

50

2 2 2 2

15

19

15

(These figures are taken from the Company's pamphlet on Boale of Charges, pp. 2-3, 1909 edition.)

Particulars are being obtained of the ships docked in each during recent years: Shipping

figures.

surplus days, condition, capacity, &c., and will be supplied later.

As to Prye Dock, it may suffice to say at present that on the one hand there is Prye Dook. to be faced the certainty of a considerable capital expenditure, and on the other

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

C.O. 882-

8

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

the uncertainty of working it at a profit. The accountants will shortly be able to supply a statement showing the result of the working in recent years.

Bon Accord Dock at Pulau Brani has been filled in and the land leased to the Bon Straits Trading Company so this may also have to be treated as surplus land.

A coord.

Rhu Slip-

way.

The Slipway at Tanjong Rhu, regarded as an investment, is not in a very strong Tanjong position. Some of the land is held on short lease and the Company has only recently, and that apparently with some difficulty, paid a dividend. The Tanjong Pagar Company, in their balance sheet of the 31st December, 1904, valued its shares in this Company at $48,000. A claim may be preferred for these as being outside the undertaking. It should, if possible, be resisted. The Company has dominated the Slipway and has used it to the best advantage of Tanjong Pagar rather than as an independent concern and these shares should be considered as a part of the undertaking. Anything they have earned should be included in the profits and capitalized with the dock portion of the profits. Further enquiries are being made in order, if possible, to discover material to support this contention.

Also will follow full particulars of the Lighterage Department of the Company's Lighterage. business.

As to the wharves, their nature and general condition, these are fully dealt with Wharfage. in the report of the 15th October, 1904 (laid herewith, Appendix N). Attention is invited to paragraphs 5 to 14 inclusive; 21 to 25 inclusive; 48 to 65, 75, 78, 81 and 82, and special attention to paragraph 20, where appears:

"With the exception of the graving dock and repairing department the existing facilities are taxed to the utmost and are entirely inadequate to meet the increasing demands of the port."

When the shareholders became aware of this report the market quotation of the Its effect shares fell rapidly by about 18 per cent, and remained with a falling tendency until on the the fact became known that the Company was to be expropriated, when they rose share quickly beyond the old figure and gradually some $40 higher (Appendix O gives the market. prices of the shares as taken from Fraser and Company's circular from the beginning of January, 1904, to this date).~

ance.

This report was certainly not written for expropriation proceedings, but it was Its import- written with responsibility and cannot be withdrawn. So far as the wharves are concerned they are absolutely condemned. It was proposed to borrow money to re-construct them instead of re-building them out of revenue. That is not usual. The receipt-earning power of a concrete wharf is not greater than that of a wooden one. No doubt it will be pointed out, and fairly so, that the re-constructed wharf would be in deeper water so as to accommodate modern ships, tut that is only another