28o 
sugar,  and  caltlc  disease,  l)ut  Lea  and  cocoa  yielded  a proliL  in 
Ceylon.  AlLer  setting  out  these  facts,  the  chairman  thus  referred 
to  the  Company’s  ventures  in  Selangor  : — 
With  regard  to  vSelangor,  Mr.  Grikve,  one  of  your  directors, 
when  on  a visit  to  the  Straits  Settlements  took  the  opportunity  of 
visiting  your  property  out  there,  and  I will  leave  it  to  him  entirely 
to  speak  to  you  on  the  subject.  Although  I daresay  I was  the 
director  who  is  personally  responsible  for  bringing  the  company  into 
Selangor,  I am  quite  prepared  to  take  the  whole  onus  on  my  own 
shoulders,  because,  from  w'hat  you  will  hear  from  Mr.  GRIEVE,  I 
think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  we  have  a first-rate  investment 
in  that  country.  With  these  remarks,  gentlemen,  I now  move  the 
following  resolution  : — ‘^That  the  directors’  report  and  statement  of 
accounts  to  March  3 i st,  1903,  now  submitted, be, and  they  are  hereby, 
adopted,  and  that,  in  accordance  with  the  recommendation  of  the 
directors,  a dividend  of  4 per  cent,  on  the  consolidated  stock  of  the 
company  be  paid  on  and  after  July  17th,  1903,  such  dividend  to  be 
paid  to  the  stockholders  appearing  on  the  register  at  this  date.” 
Mr.  Norman  W.  Grieve,  upon  this,  said  : — I beg  to  second  the 
resolution,  and  in  doing  so  I would  like  to  take  this  opportunity  of 
giving  you  a short  description  of  what  I saw  on  my  recent  visit  to 
Selangor.  I may  say,  at  the  outset,  that  I was  very  much  impressed 
indeed  with  everything  that  I saw  there.  It  is  about  five  years  and 
a half  since  I was  out  there  before,  at  which  time  the  whole  place 
was  practically  swamp  and  jungle.  There  was  nothing  whatever 
to  see  excepting  a certain  amount  of  forest,  which  had  recently  been 
felled,  and  a lot  of  water  all  over  the  estate.  Going  back  again,  a 
little  over  five  years  afterwards,  I found  that  what  had  formerly 
been  swamp  and  jungle  was  now  a smiling  country  under  cultiva- 
tion, with  fine  Government  roads  and  drains,  some  of  them  15  ft. 
square,  cut  to  carry  off  the  rainfall,  which,  as  you  are  aware,  is  very 
excessive  there  at  times.  Now  that  these  big  works  have  been 
carried  out  you  have  a dry,  rich,  alluvial  soil,  sufficiently  drained, 
and  on  which  all  sorts  of  products  are  growing  in  a way  I have 
never  seen  equalled  anywhere  else.  In  order  to  bring  myself  up  to 
date  in  regard  to  the  state  of  the  rubber  industry,  I visited  a new 
country  estate  in  Ceylon,  belonging  to  another  company  with  which 
I am  connected,  before  I went  to  Selangor,  and  I was  able  to 
acquaint  myself  with  the  treatmentand  manufacture  of  rubberthere 
carried  on,  and  to  obtain  up-to-date  information  as  to  the  method 
of  tapping  and  treating  the  latex,  in  preparation  of  the  rubber.  I 
stayed  there  a day,  and  saw  everything,  with  the  result  that  I was 
able  to  instruct  our  own  men  in  Selangor  as  to  how  to  proceed 
with  the  manufacture  and  treatment  of  rubber.  I was  also  able  by 
that  visit  to  form  a comparison  in  regard  to  the  growth  of  the  Para 
rubber  in  Ceylon,  and  in  Selangor  in  the  Straits  Settlements,  and 
my  experience,  I may  say,  leads  me  to  endorse  the  opinion,  which 
is  general  among  Ceylon  planters  who  have  seen  the  two  countries, 
that  in  Selangor  we  are  very  much  ahead,  age  forage,  in  the  matter 
of  growth;  indeed,  we  are  two  years  ahead.  In  fact,  the  rubber 
plant  is  a perfect  weed  in  .Selangor;  the  thing  grows  with  extra- 
