625 
THE CEYLON SPINNING AND WEiVING 
COMPANY (LIMITED). 
The adjourned general meeting of the Shareholders 
of this Company was held at the offices of the 
Company, No. 9 Queen Street, Fort, at 3 o'clock 
yesterday afternoon, for the purpose of reoeiving the 
report of the Directors and the statement of accounts 
for the year ending 31st December' last, both of 
whioh have been already given in the Observer. 
There were present;— Mr. R. L. M. Brown, Chairman 
of the Company (presiding), the Hon. J. J. Giin- 
linton (Managing Director), the Hon. W. W. Mitch- 
ell (representing the agents and secretaries), 
Mr. Edmund Walker, Mr. C. Eamalingam (directors), 
Messrs. W. T. Holmes, W. Atherton (manager), D. 
Harris, J. Headriok, W. E. Mitchell, G. B. Sparkes, 
H. P. Eudd, T. H. Summerfield, P. L. A. Moothyah 
Chetty, A. V. R. A. Adaicappa Chetty, V . P. R. P. L. 
Vadoogan Chetty, A. B. M. A. M. V. B. Aroona- 
chalam Chetty, S. M. R. M. Annamalay Chetty, W. 
D. Oarolis, Carimjee Jafferjee, H. Bastian Fernando, 
and 0. Wyramoothoo Pillay, and (by proxy) W, L. 
De Soysa. 
This being an adjourned meeting no minutes were 
read, but the notice calling the meeting was read 
as a matter of form. 
The Chaibman asked for the report of the Direc- 
tors to be taken as read as they had all received 
copies of it, and this being agreed to, he asked 
them to follow him through the aeoounts. Of 
course he might preface any remarks he had to 
make by stating that what they were rendering now 
was practically a statement of expenditure, because, 
as they were aware, the Mills had only been in course 
of ereotion during the past year and consequently 
had been earning nothing. The statement of 
aocounts before them therefore praotically repre- 
sented what they had spent since the formation of 
the Company. The first item they came to was that 
of capital, from which the shareholders would see 
that the Company had received R201,170 upon 4,000 
shares. They would observe that, unfortunately 
there had been very great irregularity in the manner 
in which the calls had been paid up on those shares, 
and that while some had paid in full and others in 
advance, several had been very far behind indeed 
with their calls, so much so that in accordance with 
the Joint Stock Ordinance they had been compelled 
to publish a statement of those who were in default 
or arrears, which would be found annexed to the 
balance sheet. The total amount of such arrears 
unfortunately amounted to R14.010. He had alluded 
to this matter at their previous meeting, and whi.e 
to a certain extent the amount of arrears was reduced 
there was still a considerable sum outstanding. 
It was to the interest of the Company that they 
Bhould get in the capital as regularly as possible, 
because without it the business was — he would 
not say orippled, but rendered more trouble- 
some than it otherwise would be. The next 
item on the debit side of the balance sheet 
was " amount of loans E200,000." Now he was 
aware that it had been asked in some quar- 
ters why such a considerable amount Bhould have 
to be raised. The reason of it, he thought, 
was pretty apparent on the face of the aeoounts. 
They would observe that with the total amount 
of capital received from the shareholders— R201, 170, 
and with the total amount of loans— B200, 000 
they arrived at a total of B101, 000 odd. Now had 
the direotors called up the full amount on those 
■4,000 shares they would have been entitled to 
expeot R400,000, which was exaotly the amount 
they had to provide, but it was felt that to call 
up this amount so suddenly might press incon- 
veniently on many of the shareholders, and with 
the view of rendering the burden as light as possible, 
or distributing it as muoh as possible, the 
Directors considered that it would be advisable to 
take advantage of the money whioh was offered 
to them elsewhere rather than call upon the 
shareholders to find it all at onoe. Of course that 
would be liquidated out of the calls which would 
have to be made and which would be paid up 
from time to time so that the amount of oalls 
would be reduced just as they reoeived the calls 
from the shareholders. The next item they oame 
to was debts — debts for whioh acceptances had 
been given for machinery, and debts for machinery 
not yet drawn against. The machinery represented 
by the first item — R82,671 — was already on the 
premises, but the acceptances for it had not yet 
been matured. The next item — B31, 935-25 for 
machinery not yet drawn against — represented 
machinery supplied, but in accordance with the 
terms of purchase it was supplied on credit. As, 
however, it was a liability incurred by the Com- 
pany they were bound to place it in the balance 
sheet. The next item was the amount deposited 
by shareholders in anticipation of calls — R3,480. 
The only remark he could make on that was 
that they were sorry all the other shareholders did 
not benefit by the good example. Then there 
was the amount of interest due on loans — R2,259'51. 
Of course a large proportion of this— a very large 
percentage if not the whole of it— would bereoovered 
from those shareholders who were in arrears in 
payment of their calls, because they would be 
called upon to pay interest from the time at whioh 
the call was made, or in default of their doing 
that it would be deducted from their dividend. 
The next two items — balance of wages due and 
due for cotton seed— explained themselves. The 
item of R175 to Marine Insurance Fund account 
also explained itself. It was the profit on the 
Insurance Fund of cotton coming from Tuticorin, 
which it had been decided should not be dis- 
tributed, but should form a fund in the Com. 
pany to provide against any possible loss. Coming 
to the Suspense account there was the item 
of R2, 258-43 for cotton seed sold and inter- 
est. The advantage of this was to a oertain ex- 
tent apparent : the former was not considered 
as profit, although perhaps strictly speaking it 
might be, but it had been regarded as a sort of 
fund from whioh the distribution of cotton seed to 
those who were anxious to undertake the enter- 
prize might be supplied, and consequently it had 
not been regarded as strictly profit. On the credit 
side of the aeoounts were the amounts represented 
by the freehold land and buildings at Weilawatta: 
the land consisted, as they were aware, of 28J 
acres which they purchased from Government lor 
R14.489-90. With regard to the buildings, for whioh 
R109, 708-60 was put down, he thought that any- 
one who took the trouble to go round to the 
works and observe the vast amount of labour and 
material which had been required to build them 
would, if he had any knowledge of architecture, 
admit that they had got ample value for their 
money. There had been no waste, and he did 
not think that buildings of such dimensions and 
solid structure could be ereoted anywhere in the 
island at a lower price. The items for movable pro- 
perty — machinery and tools — of course represented 
exactly what they had paid for them : there was 
no depreciation written off inasmuoh as the 
maohinery had not begun to work on the 31st of 
Deo. Coming to stock-in-trade the amount of 
R62, 183-99 seemed a considerable item. He might 
explain that it consisted o£ certain portion of machi- 
nery and of oertam relays or duplicates of maohi- 
nery and of oil, leavherbelting &o., a large 
