20 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



Havana, Ltd., for the year ended June 30, 

 1914, submitted at the twenty-third ordinary 

 meeting on November 11th in London shows 

 receipts £286,704, and expenses £185,575, 

 leaving a balance of £101,129. Ratio of ex- 

 penses to receipts, 54.73 per cent. To this 

 balance of £101,129 there has to be added the 

 profit on the working of Hacendados Ware- 

 houses and other properties and transfer fees, 

 and to be deducted the loss on exchange. 

 These adjustments having been made, there 

 remains a total of £112,054. After adding 

 interest, deducting payment of interest on 

 debenture stock, stamp duties and making 

 provision for taxes, etc., there remains a net 

 revenue of £82,367 in respect of the year 

 1913-1914. To this must be added the 

 amount brought forward from the previous 

 year — namely, £16,703, maldng an available 

 balance of £99,070. The Board has recom- 

 mended a dividend of 7% (less income-tax), 

 carrying forward £22,070. The reserve ac- 

 count amounts to £70,000. The general 

 renewals re.serve amounts to £13,760. The 

 insurance account amounts to £15,000. 



A year ago the distribution was the same 

 (making the tenth year in succession), with 

 £10,000 placed to reserve account, £5,000 to 

 insurance fund, and £16,703 carried forward. 

 — Financial Times, London. 



CUBAN CENTRAL RAILWAYS 



The accounts of the Cuban Central Rail- 

 ways, Ltd., for the year to June 30, show that 

 gross receipts decreased by £31,767 to £585,- 

 837, and with an increase in expenses the net 

 receipts are £47,237 lower at £217,677. After 

 providing for fixed charges and adding the 

 .sum brought forward, the net revenue shows 

 a balance of £79,604. It is proposed to pay 

 a dividend of 2% on the ordinary shai-es, 

 transferring £15,000 to reserve and carrying 

 £13,054 forward. 



The fall in gross receipts from £617,603 to 

 £585,837 is almost wholly due to the reduced 

 sugar traffic. On the other hand, there has 

 been a considerable increase in expenditure, 

 this being partly due to increase in salaries 

 and wages, to an increase in the price of coal, 

 and to a greater engine mileage being run. 

 The ratio of working expenses to gross re- 

 ceipts rose from 57.11 to 62.84 per cent. The 

 new board, which assumed office on January 

 1st last, expresses the opinion that large eco- 

 nomies can be made without impairing the 

 efficiency of the services rendered to the pub- 

 lic. 



As regards the future prospects Mr. C. J. 

 Cater Scott, the chairman, stated that he 

 could say that these were good. 



All the indications pointed to a very large 

 crop — a crop which M. G. A. Morson, the 

 general manager of the Cuban Central esti- 

 mated some little time ago would be 20 per 

 cent bigger than that of last year. A 20 per 

 cent, increase in the crop would mean £50,000 

 increase in their total gross receipts. During 

 the last two or three days they had received 

 from Mr. Morson a telegram in which he 

 stated: "Confirm estimate next crop, 20 per 



cent, to 25 per cent, more than last year." 

 So that in consequence of the recent favorable 

 weather in Cuba, Mr. Morson rather in- 

 creased his estimate, which was satisfactory. 

 There was another favorable feature in con- 

 nection with the current year. Last year 

 prices were very low and barely remunerative. 

 This year the position was entirely changed. 

 A large quantity of the beet sugar produced on 

 the Continent would probably not be mar- 

 keted and there had been a very substantial 

 improvement in the value of sugar every- 

 where. With prices remunerative alike to 

 the grower of cane and to the mill owner, 

 there was every reason why they should pro- 

 duce every bag of sugar possible. This 

 would undoubtedly enrich all people, even 

 those not directly connected with sugar in the 

 district, and it must add to the general pros- 

 perity of 1914-15. It would encourage plant- 

 ing during next year and enable them to take 

 a reasonably sanguine view of the future of 

 the Cuban Central both for 1914-15 and 1915- 

 16. As regarded the tobacco crop, which 

 formed a certain portion of their business, the 

 position was different. Cigars, naturally, 

 were luxuries, antl when there were enforced 

 economies the consumption of cigars would 

 naturally fall off. As a matter of fact, so 

 soon as the war was declared there was a 

 countermanding of a great many of the cigar 

 orders in Havana, with the result that many 

 of the factories closed down. Although some 

 of these had since reopened, he beheved that 

 a good many were still standing idle. Of 

 course, with the factories closed down, there 

 was a diminisehd demand for tobacco, and so 

 they found that there were in Havana large 

 stocks of tobacco which had not been sold, for 

 which the holders could not get money, and, 

 as they were mostly small cultivators, depen- 

 dent on their crop from year to year, he was 

 afraid the result would mean some diminu- 

 tion in the area planted with tobacco, affect- 

 ing the receipts of this company so far as 

 tobacco was concerned. Then, undoubtedly, 

 the present devasting war must affect all 

 pleasure traffic, and this, again, would cm*- 

 tail the amount of money circulating in the 

 island and would naturally affect all general 

 business. But in spite of these two adverse 

 factors, he thought that, thanks to the good 

 sugar crop which was promised, the Cuban 

 Central Railways might look forward to mak- 

 ing a good showing for the year 1914-15. 



Mr. Morson, their general manager, had 

 now got a thorough grasjj of the situation out 

 there and was working in the closest harmony 

 with t"he Board in London. As a result, dur- 

 ing the fhst four months of this year they had 

 made striking economies. Those economies 

 had exceeded their expectations, and he 

 might tell the shareholders that, when he 

 called them economies, they were real econo- 

 mies. It was not a cutting down of the effici- 

 ency of their service to the public; it was not 

 overlooking the maintenance of the property 

 as a whole, but it was a reducing of expendi- 

 ture which was unnecessary and a better 

 regulation of the railways. Therefore, when, 



