April i, 1906.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^VORLD 



227 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN EUROPE. 



HASKELL GOLF BALL CASE IN ENGLAND. 

 TN a decision of the British Court of Appeal on March 7, 

 ■*- concurred in by the full bench then sitting, the adverse 

 finding of the lower court is sustained in the caseof the Has- 

 kell Golf Ball Co. :•. Hutchinson &. Main for alleged infringe- 

 ment on the plaintiff's patent covering the manufacture of 

 golf balls. The court bases its finding upon the testimony 

 of a Captain Douglas Stewart, who made and sold golf balls 

 almost identical with those of the Haskell company as early 

 as 1871 or 1872, and that of one Mr. Fernie who offered sim- 

 ilar evidence. The trial in the first instance was before Mr. 

 Justice Buckley, in the High Court of Justice, chancery di- 

 vision, in London, beginning May 29, 1905. 



DUNLOI' REORGANIZATION. 



An extraordinary general meeting of the Dunlop Pneumatic 

 Tyre Co., Limited, was called for March 14 for the purpose 

 of considering resolutions providing for the reduction of the 

 capital of the company, bj' scaling down the par value of the 

 ordinar\- and deferred shares, to the end that the capital shall 

 more nearly represent the present value of the assets. At 

 present " good will " figures largely in the list of as.sets, but 

 since the expiration of the patents upon which the company 

 was formed originally and the conversion of the company 

 into a manufacturing enterprise, it is agreed by all interest- 

 ed that a reorganization is desirable, though it has not been 

 easy to formulate a scheme on which all classes of share- 

 holders could agree. The readjustment of classes of capital 

 suggested bj- the directors is indicated b}' the table : 



Present. Proposed. 



Preference /i, 000,000 ^1,000,000 



Ordinary i.coo.ooo 625,000 



Deferred 2,000,000 500,000 



Total /'4 000,000 ;f 2 125.000 



The new plan was adopted by a decisive vote. 



RUBBER FOOTWEAR TRADE IN GERMANY. 

 Thk rubber shoe trade has been quite a suflTerer this win- 

 ter [says Git/nmi-Zeitung, P'ebruary 23J. Very few points 

 report a lively business in this line. The reason is found in 

 the lack of snow, and in the gencrallj- mild winter. Though 

 rubbers are more generally worn in rainy weather than for- 

 merly, still it is snowy weather that calls for their greatest 

 use. Thus it happens that all dealers are overstocked. In 

 other countries we hear the same complaints from rubber 

 shoe men. In the LInited States, especially, the minimum 

 sale has been reached, owing to the unusually mild win- 

 ter. - - - Owing to the weak trade, and the higher tar- 

 iffs in some other countries, many consignments of rubber 

 shoes will be sent into Germany from abroad. 



GREAT BRITAIN. 

 St. Helens Cable and Rubber Co., Limited, was regis- 

 tered February 28, with /io,Qoo [=$48,665] capital, to ac- 

 quire the business of the St. Helens Cable Co , Limited ; to 

 adopt agreements with Callender's Cable and Construction 

 Co., British'Insulated and Helsby Cables, and Siemens Bro- 

 thers & Co. ; and to carry on the business of cable makers, 

 rubber manufacturers, and a general electrical business. The 

 first directors are T. O. Callender, J. Taylor, and G. von 

 Chauvin, respectively directors in the three cable companies 

 named above. Registered offices, Warrington, England. 



=W. T. Henley's Telegraph Works Co., Limited, at their 

 annual meeting (London, March i) reported a net trading 

 profit of last year /4o,i87 [=§195,570] again.st /38,263 for 

 1904, and ^'36,742 in the year preceding. The dividend on 

 the ordinary shares remains at 15 per cent. To meet the 

 growing requirements of the business ^300,000 new deben- 

 ture stock has been created ; of this /i50,ooo has been issued 

 and the former debenture stock has been redeemed. The 

 construction of the new Gravesend works has been com- 

 pleted and manufacturing there will be begun shortly. 



=TiiE India Rubber World is advised on authority that 

 it was in error last month in stating that Mr. J. M. F. Fuller, 

 lately reelected to parliament in the western district of Wilt- 

 shire, "is financially interested in The Avon India Rubber 

 Co., Limited." He is, however, a brother of Mr. R. F. 

 Fuller, manager of the company. 



= Mr. J. M. MacLulich, general manager of the Sirdar Rub- 

 berCo., Limited (London), in order 10 complete the installation 

 of machinery in their new factory at a given date, recently se- 

 cured the sole services of Francis Shaw & Co., the well known 

 rubber machinery engineers, with the proviso that for 18 weeks 

 no other contract for machinery should be taken, the machin- 

 ery to be in place in the new factory at a fixed date, under 

 penality. 



= The directors of Callender's Cable and Construction Co., 

 Limited (London), are understood to have under considera- 

 tion the idea of establishing branch works in Germanj-, to 

 offset the loss of continental trade, owing to the prohibitive 

 tarifls of protective countries. 



= The mayor and mayoress of Sal ford (Alderman Isidor 

 Frankenburg and Mrs. Frankenberg) held recently a series 

 of brilliant receptions in the Royal Museum, Peel Park. The 

 first was to the members of public bodies, public officials, 

 and prominent people of Salford and surrotinding districts ; 

 the second chiefly to the teachers of Salford ; and the third 

 to the employes of Isidor Frankenburg & Co., Limited. 



=The St. Helens Cable Co., Limited (Warrington, Eng- 

 land), advise that their Scottish business has been concen- 

 trated in 8ne branch — 191, Howard street, Glasgow. The 

 cable department remains under the management of A. 

 Cowie, and Robert Sinclair has taken charge of the tire and 

 mechanical goods departments. 



GERMANY. 



The Munich firm Aktiengesellschaft Metzeler & Co. closed 

 the year 1905 with earnings of 254.746 marks, including the 

 amount carried over from the preceding year, against 270,723 

 marks for 1904. The directors on March 20 declared a 

 dividend of 5 per cent. In view of the encouraging growth 

 of the business, the capital stock will be increased about 

 800,000 marks, the present figure being 1,600,000. 



= The Gelnhausen factory of the Vereinigte Berlin-Frank- 

 furter Gummiwaren-Fabriken lately turned out several sec- 

 tions of suction hose for the Krupp iron works, which they 

 claim are the largest that have yet been made. An iixamination 

 of the photograph of the products, which has reached the India 

 Rubber World, seem to substantiate their statement. 



=A correspondent of The Indi.\ Rubber World writes 

 from Plauen in Vogtland : "I found out that in this town 

 of 106,000 souls there is not an American rubber shoe to be 

 had. Hovi' is that for high ? I informed our consul here of 

 the lack of rubbers and he is writing about it to Washing- 

 ton." 



