4
April 30, 1906.j
COMPANIES.
UNION INSURANCE SOCIETY OF
CANTON, LTD.
The thirty-third ordinary meeting of share- holders in the Society was held at the Society's offices on the 28th April,. Mr. H. W. Slade presided, and there were also present-Messrs. A. G. Wood, N. A. Biebs, A. Forbes, G. H. Medhurst (directors); W. J. Saunders (socretary), and C. M. G. Barnie. B. D. Murray, H. J. M. Carmichael, O. A. Crux, J. B. H. Whittall, H. M. H. Nemasee, W. H. Carmichael, J. A. Jupp, H. M. Tibbey, W. Melobers, F. P. Hett and Captain H. W. Hogg.
The Secretary read the notice convening the meeting, and
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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311
documents; 36 shareholders holding 2,086 shares, with the Union Insurance Society of Canton hare not replied and 31 shareholders holding | will appear as a charge aguinat this balanos. 727 shares bave elected to retain their Chios | Ava record for our late shareholders who still Traders shares. As many of those who have retain an interest in the ultimate intrinsic value not replied are executors of deceased estates who of our shares as at December 31st last, as well as have not yet obtained proper powers and there for the information of the present holders of our are others who owing to change of address have stock, I may state that the Company's smeta only recently received our circulars, the Board have been valued, and exchanges taken at the has decided to keep the Society's offer open current rates, as at that date the differences in until the end of the year to give them all a exchange being passed to exchange finaluation further chance. By that time we shall be able account, and the differences on the re-valuation to know how many new shares are left on our of assets being passed to investment fluctuation hands and to decide how they are to be disposed account, and that, with the exception of of. I have nothing more to my except that one or two minor valuations which were our soheme for joining forces with the available when the books were closed and China Traders' Insurance Company has now have still to be added, the statement as been successfuly completed and the objects rented is complete at date. If any furth aimed at may be considered as secured. The information is desired I shall be glad to givali goodwill has been retained, the charges have before formally moving the adoption of been reduced, the Society has secured an excel- report and balance sheet. lent investment, and the China Traders' share- holders will not, we hope, regret the change. At the same time I should not like this opportunity to go by without expressing the very high appreciation which your board has of the admirable way in which this difficult work has been carried out from start to finish, first by your acting secretary, Mr. Ede, and then by your secretary, Mr. Saunders, since he took over charge again upon his return from home. I think you will agree with me that nothing else is required to prove the tact and ability of Mr. Sanders, by whom the details were worked out, than the fact that the new working arrange ments have been completed practically without a hitch and almost entirely in accordance with the scheme as originally proposed. Before pro posing the adoption of the report and accounts I shall be glad to know if anyone has any questions to ask.
There being no questions, the CHAIRMAN pro- posed that the report and accounts as presented be adopted.
The CHAIRMAN said:-Gentlemen,-With your permission I will take the report as read. To begin with, I would like to explain in as few words as possible the Board's reasons for holding the annual meeting now instead of next October. In the past we have at each annual meeting in October presented accounts to the 30th June and have closed the working account of the preceding year and divided up the profits. In order to render this possible we had a system of estimating the proportionate amount of premium on all unexpired policies still outstanding on the old year's account and transferring both premium and liabilities on these unexpired portions of policies to the new year. As you may imagine, this was rather an arduous task and any very great socuracy was hardly to be aimed at. We have long been seeking an opportunity for amending this system, and, now that under our bargain with the Chips Traders' shareholders we have to provide exact figures up to the end of the year 1905, we find it necessary to abolish the system altogether and allow all olaims on 1905 policies to fall on the 1905 working account. Under these circumstances we cannot form any proper estimate of the 1905 profits until we have all the accounts in up to the end of 1906 and this means an annual meeting not earlier than April 1907, to deal with the profits. Considering that the main part of your dividend comes out of interest on your Reserve Funds we thought it unreasonable to ask you to wait until April, 1907, for the whole of your dividend, and therefore we have called you together now to receive the accounts up to the end of 1905 and to pass an interim dividend out of 1905 interest. We propose next April to pay a final dividend for the year 1905 and an interim dividend for the year 1906, and to con- tinue this system in future years. We now come to the 1905 working account. The figures published, we think, are very satisfactory, bat we cannot of course forecast what the ultimate profit will be as the risks have not yet run off. The interest account amounts to nearly 837 per share, but of this at least $7 per share must be counted as interest. ou the premium in hand for the year 1905 and ought not to be anticipated as a profit at this stage. The Board therefore recommends an interim dividend of $30 per share. This with the usual bonus of 20 per cent, to contri- butors will absorb some $575,000 and leave $2,200,000 to be carried forward to be dealt with next April. Most of it will of course go to pay lorses and claims, but we hope to have a fair balance left. As regards the balance sheet, the figures speak for themselves, and I would merely point out that the rate of exchange for sterling being 28. {d., instead of 1s. 104d. as in our last balance sheet, some of the items natur ally show a reduction in dollars. Our Furni- ture and Office Leases have been valued for the purpose of getting at the final intrinsic value of our shares later on, and a new asset -appears under this heading of $30,169.53. To this must be added the value of our London
·Office Leases, written advices of which have not yet reached us. The next point dealt with in the report is the new issue of shares. There are 24,000 China Traders' shares and we are issning one new share in the Society in exchange for each ten of them, as well as a cash certificate for the balance of intrinsic value. Up to the 1 present date 19,702 Chins Traders' shares have come in for exchange. Besides this the holders of 1,457 further shares have accepted our offer but have not yet completed delivery of their
Mr. JUPP-I have much pleasure in seconding the motion for the adoption of the report and accounts with which, I am sure, we have every reason to be satisfied.
The motion was carried unanimously.
Mr. W. H. CARMICHAEL'proposed and Captain Hood seconded, the re-election of Messrs. At Forbes and H. W. Slade as directors. Carried.
Mr. TIBBEY moved that Messrs. W. H. Potts and A. E. Lowe bɔ re-appointed auditors.
Mr. NEMAZEE seconded, and the motion was carried.
The CHAIRMAN-That is all the business. gentlemen. Dividend and bonus warrants will be sent out on Monday.
CHINA TRADERS' INSURANCE CO.
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The fourteenth annual meeting of share. holders in the China Traders' Insurance Company, Ltd., was held on Saturday at the offices of the Company, Queen's Buildings. Į Mr. H. W. Slade presided, and there were also present-Messrs E. Goetz, A. Haupt, C. R. Lenzmann, E. Ormiston (directors). A. Ongh, W. J. Saunders, C. M: G. Burnie, D. B. Murray, H. C. Gray, A. E. Alves, H. J. Carvalho, J. A, Carvalho. V. L. dos Remedios, B. da Cunha. and Whittall (secretary).
The Secretary having read the notice convening the meeting,
The CHAIRMAN said Gentlemen, "Follow ing our usual custom I propose, with your per- mission, to take as read the report and statement of accounts to-day presented for your adoption, and which have been in your hands for some little time past. You will have noticed that the accounts are rendered to the 31st Decem- ber last, in accordance with the special resolu- tions passed and confirmed at the recently held extraordinary general meetings of the Company. The working account is for the eight months only, from May to December of last year, and, as stated in the report, out of the balance in hand your directors recommend the payment of an interim dividend of $3 a shara, and a bonus of 15 per cent. on bonus-bearing contribu- tions received during that period, the balance to be carried forward to meet whatever further liabilities may be incurred, and any profit remain ing to be dealt with at our next annual meeting. In the next statement of our 1905 account the amount paid as compensation to those of our late staff who have not been offered employment
On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, seconded by Mr. Ove¤, the report and socounts were adopted.
Mr. SAUN IRS moved, and Mr. Bunnin seconded, the confirmation of the appointment of Mr. Ormiston to the board of directors.
On the motion of Mr. OUGH, seconded by Mr. MURRAY, Meeers E. Goets and A. J. Raymond were re-elected directors.
Mesars. T. Arnold and H. U. Jeffries were re-elected auditors, on the motion of Mr. BURNIE, seconded by Mr. CARVALHO.
The CHAIRMAN—That is all the businems, gentlemen. Dividend warrants will be ready on Monday.
THE YANGTSZE INSURANCE
ASSOCIATION, LTD.
At the sixteenth ordinary general meeting of this Association, on April 18th, the Chair- man said:-The balance of working account 1904 and former years is $323,346.48 as against $238,190.62 last year; and as stated in the report the directors recommend the following distribution, viz. :-
To pay a dividend of 20 per cent.—$12
per share
To addition to reserve fuud To addition to reinsurance fund To be carried forward
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96,000.00 50,000.00
50,000.00
...
127,346.48
8328,348.48
If you sanction this division the reserve fund will amount to $800,000, equalling_the_sub. scribed ospital of the Association and the Rein- surance Fund, which was only established a year ago when you voted $50,000 for the purpose, and has since increased by a profit of $11,278,45, a very useful auxiliary fund which, like our reserve fund, we hope to see steadily grow. So far directors have not deemed it necessary,
your nor opportune, to ask you to increase the paid-
up
capital of the Association, but, with. an expanding business, they keep the question in view, as I mentioned at several past meetings, in case an increase should become advisable.
The working account for 1905 shows a balance at credit of $532,334.25, as against 8623,364.85, ● falling-off of $91,000, which easily accounted for by the happily restored peace between Russia and Japan. It is still $10,000 better than the balance two years ago and therefore very satisfactory. Out of the balance of this account, which includes $99,249.33 interest earned, it is proposed to pay a special dividend of 5 per cent., or $3 per share, which will absorb $24,000. Taking the working for the two periods together and comparing the balanoss with those shown in last year's socounts, we find a total of 8866,958.18 against 8861,555.57.
Pending Claims.-The full estimates of pend- ing claims for 1904 and former years, are about 850,000 more than last year, but as the balance carried forward is about $85,000 more than last year it should be ample to meet all claims.
Pending Claims for: 1905 are about $40,000 more than last year, but full estimates for all known claims and no allowances for possible salvages have been made, so it is hoped, that a good balance will remain after the 1905 account has run off.
At last year's mesting I alluded to the case of the ss. Nigretia, which had been seized and confiscated by the Japanese. It seems they did so on account of having found. Ras- sian officers on board. As this copstitu- ted a riak we had not covered we refused
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