August 11, 1900.]
TEBEAU PLANTING COMPANY
LIMITED.
The fourth general meeting of shareholders in the above Company was held at the Com- pany's offices, Nos. 38 and 40, Queen's Road Central, on the 9th inst. at noon. The chair was occupied by Mr. H. Humphreys, and there were also present Messrs. E. S. Kelly, J. S. Hagen, W. D. Sutton. J. M. Wang, and W. C. Taylor (Secretary).
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The CHAIRMAN said-Gentlemen, you have had the report and statement of accounts before you for some days, so that I will with your per- mission dispense with the formality of reading them. I have very little to add to the estate manager's report which you will find printed on the inside of the General Manager's report. At your last General Meeting the Chairman, Mr. Hart Buck, referred hopefully to the results likely to accrue from the planting of our Para rubber trees and as tending to endorse his opinion, I will read you an extract from the Straits Times, dated 14th May last. Reports of all three varieties now being cultivated in the Malay States Para, Ficus Elastica, and Castil- loa - are encouraging in the extreme and the committee of the United Planters Association have great satisfaction in announcing the re- ceipt of a communication frous the Perak Government which shows that a sale has just been effected in London @3s. 10d. for 327ths. of Para, and that a sample of Ficus Elastica was valued at 38. 6d. The latter is especially good news, as it has never been known that the value of Ficus Elastica so nearly approximated to that of Para. Large numbers of rubber trees are being planted over the country, and the Com. mittee look forward with confidence to a time of great prosperity when the trees begin to yield." On 8th, June last year 450 shares in the Company were forfeited for non-payment of call. Up to the end of April 265 of these were re-issued to our estate manager and Se- cretary and accepted by them in lieu of cash for salary due. The balance, viz., 185 shares at $2.00 will also be re-issued during the current year, and these shares together with the calls thereon amounting to $370 (which sum now appears under the heading of suspense a/c) will be dis- posed of in exactly the same manner as the 265 shares I have already referred to. The item in suspense a/c will therefore not appear in our next account. You will notice that no General Management fees figure in the accounts as we have again decided to forego them. If any shareholder has any questions to ask, I shall be pleased to answer them.
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There being no questions, the report and accounts were adopted, on the motion of the CHAIRMAN, Seconded by Mr. KELLY.
On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, seconded by Mr. HAGEN, Mr. W. Hutton, Potts was re- appointed auditor.
This was all the business.
The following is the report:-
To the Shareholders of the Tebrau Planting Company, Limited.
Gentlemen,-We beg to lay before you our Balance Sheet for the year ending 30th April last. We also annex the Report of our Estate Manager, Mr. Larken.
The accounts have been audited in Singapore by Messrs. Gunn & Co., and in Hongkong, in the absence of Mr. W. H. Potts from the Colony, by Mr. A. H. Mancell.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
whole amount we proposed to open into cultiva- tion, making 250 acres of Liberian Coffee and 50 acres of Para Rubber, all of which are look. ing well. The price of Coffee has not yet advanced to a paying figure, but there is still plenty of time for the market to return to old rates before our trees are old enough to bear any considerable amount of crop. During the greater part of last year the price was down to about $15 per picul, but recovered towards the end of the year, and early this your sales were re- ported at $24, but it has since declined and remained steady at $20 per picul. The re- ports of yield of Para Rubber trees continue most encouraging. On the occasion of the last Flower Show in Singapore a medium-sized tree at the Botanic Gardens about 12 years old was tapped and yielded in one day 14 lbs. of Rubber. At the annual meeting of the Selangor Planters' Association it was stated that a tree, presum- ably an old and full-grown one, had been tapped twice in ten months and had yielded 16 lbs. at each tapping without injury to the tree. In addition to Para Rubber I have also planted a considerable number of another kind called Rambory or Ficus Elestica, which is also said to give highly satisfactory results. Rub- ber is said to do best in swampy soil, like the 50 acres I have planted with it, but it also gives paying returns when planted on rising ground, and it is my intention to continue planting on the slopes among the coffee from time to time as I am able to get sufficient seed.
JOHN D. HUMPHREYS & SON,
General Managers. Hongkong, 31st July, 1900. The following is Mr. M. Larken's report on the property for the twelve months ending 30th April, 1900:-
Dr.
BALANCE SHEET FOR THE YEAR ENDING 30TH APRIL, 1900. LIABILITIES.
Capital account :-
10,000 fully paid-up shares at
$5
265 fully paid-up shares at $5 9,550 shares at $4... $38,200.00 Less unpaid calls on
1,425 shares at $1
185 shares at $2
1,425.00
$ 0. 50,000.00 1,325.00
36,775,00 370.00
Forfeited shares-459 shares at $2 Bills payable
Cr.
Property account:-
ASSETS.
Purchase price of old Com-
pany's property Gambier plantations since ao-
quired
$
◊.
88,470.00 900,00 600.00
PROFIT AND Loss Account, 1st May, 1899.
To amount carried forward To Hongkong office charges and auditor's 30th April, 1900.-
foo
To salaries............... To exchange.
30th April, 1900, By interest By transfer fees
By profit on Gambier Crop No. 3 By balance
CONSULAR REPORTS.
HANGCHOW,
111
857.22
166.61
300,00
69.50
$893.33
108.15
1.50
-478.42
305.20
$893.83
From Mr. Acting-Consul Clennel's very full report on the trade of Hangohow for 1899 it appears that the total value has increased from £1,141,925 to £1,725,265. Hangchow now ranks seventeenth out of 32 ports of which statistics are published, while as to collection of revenue it stands fourteenth out of 33 ports. "Roughly speaking," says Mr, Clennel," its share is about one forty-fourth of the trade of the Empire, and it contributes about the same proportion to the total customs revenue.” continues:
He
"On comparing the values of imports and ex- ports for the years 1198 and 1899 the former. show a far larger increase than the latter, namely, 2,138,981 Haikwan taels (£305,569), as against 1,369,307 Haikwan taels (£205,396). Expressed in percentages the advance has been (silver values) rather over 72 per cent. in im- ports and rather over 27 per cent. in exports. On the total trade the increase works out to not quite 44 per cent., whereas the figures for 1898 only show an advance of a little over 4 per cent. upon those for 1897. The branch of trade in which the increase has been greatest is the im- port of native goods. This trade has multiplied nearly tenfold in two years, for while the total for 1899 amounts to 270 times that for 1898, $89,970.00 the latter in its turn was 3-62 times that for 1897. On the other hand the small direct im- portation of foreign goods (44,620 and 43,252 Haikwan taels) which appears in the returns for 1897 and 1898 is entirely absent from those of the year under review. In the Customs re- port for 1898, Mr. Paul H. King, the then Commissioner of Customs, remarked that these imports consisted for the most part of direct transhipments at Shanghai from Hongkong 1,142.45 and Japan. Their disappearance in 1899 may, 218.23 therefore, be attributed to a change in mode of transport en route rather than be set down as a loss to the trade of the port."
$
$ C. 50,000.00
3,261.00
coffee plantation crop
Rabber plantation Buildings Toola
"Mount Austin
No. 1
Cash in Hongkong and Shang-
hai Bank
$4,250.64
Cash in hand
23.33
Cash with Estate Manager
83.24
Cash with General Managers
400,00
Suspense account
Profit and loss account balance at debit
C.
53,261.00
20,823.78 3,092.07
4,757.21
370.00 305 26
$89,970.00
WORKING ACCOUNT, GAMBIER CROP No. 3. 30th April, 1900,
$
To Millburu Gambier Factory account. To proportion of Estate Manager's salary To Gambier plantations upkeep
for one year
To balance profit
30th April, 19^0.
By sale of Gambier from old plantations By sale of Gambier from Millburn By sale of Gambier from new plantations
0.
2,607.80
163.32
400.00 478.42
Mr. Clennel gives the following figures for the carrying trade of the port under the Japanese and Chinese flags respectively-Foreign im- ports, Japanese Hk. Tls. 140,713 against Chinese Hk. Tls. 2,606,720; Native imports, 94 against 2,366.829; Native exports, 785,259 against 5,667,293; Foreign re-exports, 1,508 against 9,893; Coast trade, duty paid, 6,648 against 134.389; Tonnage dues, paid, 45 against 21; Export duty, paid, 51,767 against 241,429. Na- tive re-exports under the Chinese flag amounted to Hk. Tls. 3,740.
Shanghai monopolizes almost all the foreign import trade to Hangchow, as well as Hk. Tis. $3,654.63 2,239,784 out of the Hk. Tls. 2,366,923 of the native import trade. But the rival route from Soochow to Hangohow has a very considerable passenger traffic, carried by Soochow boats.
165.60
$ e. 1,785.56 1,703.47
$3,654.63
WORKING ACCOUNT, COFFEE Chor No. 1, 1st May, 1899. To balance carried forward 30th April, 1900. To wages To cartage and charges
To proportion of Estate Manager's salary
for one year
Gambier.-The price remained low during the earlier portion of this period at about $53 per picul, but rose towards the end of last year to upwards of $6, and during the last few months has been steady at over $7 per pical. The amount, however, produced by our planta- tions has diminished owing to the increasing age of the plants, many of which have now passed their prime and do not yield sufficient 30th April, 1907.
leaf to make it worth while to keep them in By charges carried forward........
cultivation.
Mount Austin.-I am glad to report that all
has gone well here and I have now brought the
C.
There is a great amount of trade not recorded in the Customs returns; especially is this the case with foreign piece-goods and with rice. With regard to the former, Mr. Clennel quotes Mr. King's statement, as follows —" The 18,024.05 almost total absence of foreign cotton and wool- len piece-goods from our returns, although 6,343.47 Hangchow is well-known in the Shanghai 476.26 market as a large consumer of such products, is 2,000.00 explained by the fact that this branch of the trade is controlled by a powerful association of $28,843.78 || local merchants under official protection, styled the Yang-pu Kung-so (Foreign Cloth Guild). d. They make their own return to the lekin and 20.00 20,823.78
import solely through that channel. Some idea may be gained of the extent of their transac- $20,843.78 tions, though no actual statistics are forthcom-
ing, from the fact that during the year t
they
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