»94 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Sept. i, 1893. 
The meetiog concluded with a vote of thanks 
to the Chair, 
Th« following was the report of the Directors :— | 
The Directors herewith have the pleasure to submit j 
their first Report, which they trust will be considered I 
satisfactory by the ShareholdeiK, shewing as it does ' 
a ^ofit of nearly 26 per cent o ■ the year's working. i 
The crop, which was estimated to be 100,000 lb. of I 
made tea to .^Oth June, only reached «9,505 lb. ; but | 
this short fall was fully compensated for by the higher | 
average price realized — namely 4« cents. | 
The Directors recommend dealing with the profit as i 
follows, viz. : — To write off the total preliminary 
expenses incurred in the formation of the Company, ] 
amounting to E3,449'G(5 ; to set aside the sum of | 
R855-27, being 1 per cent on the fill insured value of I 
Tactory and Machinery, in r* spect of depreciation 
thereon; to divide a profit at the rate of 17 per cent 
for the year ; and to carry forward the small remain- 
ing balance of B62'91. 
In terms of the Articles of Association, all the 
Directors retire, but are eligible for re election. It 
will also be necessary to appoint an Auditor. 
CEYLON TliA IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
MeBsrs. Drummond of Adelaide are now firmly 
eatabliBhed in Adelaide and they should be en- 
couraged in every way. They have had great up- 
hill work, but now thtir business is piOjjreesicg 
well. A joke appeared lately in (he Adelaide paper 
"Quiz." Major-General Downes the Lcnimundant 
of the South Australian troops complained to the 
Manager of the Refreshment Rooms of a large 
railway station in South Aubtralia as regards the 
wretched quality of the tea :— " Why don't you get 
your tea from Drummond Bros. They 8ell C<ylon 
tea and it is good." "Ah" the Manager replied 
"We are not all Major-General's!" — Mies Drum- 
tuond a sister of Mebsrs. Drummond his arrived 
by the " HoheLZoUem " and has had the pleasure 
of meeting her brother here who has completely 
recovered from his late illnesB. 
THE CINCHONA DEPARTil ENT. 
According to the report of the Direc'or of the 
CinohoDa Department, the alEcr.co of Eunfhine and 
drought which prevailed on the western side of the 
Nilgiri plateau from October till the end of Februsry 
last, rendered the seaEon unfavourable for cinchona 
cultivation in all the estates except Dodubf-tta. 
The crop harvest during the ytar was, thtrefore, 
less than the quantity dispos d of. Of tLe buk 
disposed of, a large quantity was utilised for the 
manufacture of sulphate of quirine and solid 
febrifuge. Crown bark was principally u cd in the 
manufacture of quinine. A large quantity of euI- 
pbate of quinine and febrifuge was manufactured 
Bt the Nedivattam factory and supplied to the 
medical stores departments of Madras and Bombay, 
to the Mysore Durbar and to privitr partiee. Tbe 
annual outturn of the factory is considi rably in excess 
of the requirements of the Goveinreint MeJical 
Department and there will always bo a suffiaient 
quantity of the drugs in stock to meet all demands 
There was a very material increase in the number of 
indents received from the several Collectors of quinine 
packets. The receipts during the year under review 
excluding the cost of quinine packets supplied to 
collectors for distribution was less than tbe budget 
and revised estimates. The decrease was due to a 
reduction in the price of quinine acd to the Ceylon 
Government having discontipued the purchase t f 
quinine from the Nedivattam factory. Theexptr- 
diture cf the department during the year va- a'^o 
lees than the budget and revised estimates. Tbe 
reduction in the expenditure is ilis result ot an 
attempt on the part of the Director to equalize 
tbe actual revenue BDd expenditure,— J/. Standard. 
WENTWORTH INDIAN ESTATES 00. 
GOLD, TEA ASD LIIlEBIAif COFPrE. 
The thirteenth ordinary general meeting of tbe 
Bh'reholderB of the Wentworth Gold Mining and 
Indian Estates Company, L<mit«d. irkg belH oo 
Thursday week, at the office;-, 34, Nicholas Lane, 
B.O , Mr. Robert Ewing (the chairman) pre^-i'liog. 
The Secretary haviog read the notice cooTeolDg 
the meeti'ijr. 
The Chairman said; GentlemeD, inuring the seat 
we have been purguiuir the game polioy as we bava 
doro for feveral years past; but now >ou will »ee 
from the acco')ntg tha* we are coming to the ecd of 
our cieh resources. This ba« aiiwo, to a material 
extent, owing to oar not being able, from varinus 
fpBBODS, to get in tbe wholn of our lat't call. Wa 
bave, however, the last t«o Tears' harvest* of 
cinchona bark on hand, which will, we fxpect, with 
the growing coffee crop, pro'^noe eufficiei t to carry 
us over the current year. We have done our best 
to keep tbe egtates in proper order, and bave, more- 
over, only taken such barverts of bark as were nere*. 
sary to tbe well-being of tbe plantations. By taking a 
fair crop each year the estate woold be B<>lf-8uprorting, 
nnUes prices fall below their pre»ent level. We are 
makine extensions of tea and Liberian eoffee, ubich 
we tbiuk, when tbey eome into bearin;, will add 
considerably to the returns from the estates. We 
cannot xee our <ray to making any reduction on the 
deV.it side of tbe account, and it is pnnsible tbe coal 
may be slightly larger next year, owing to the recent 
rise ill exchange, caused by the legislative enactment. 
As r^gvrds the share capital, after (xhausting all 
po'sihie means of ge'tiig the arrears of calls paid 
np, an<I not having cncceeded, we put the matter 
into tbe bands of our solicitorf, and at the email 
co^t f>bown in the acceiunt tliey succeeded in getting 
in a considorable amount The shares in respect of 
the remainder of the ca'l". with the exception of 
a fm'U amount, we have declared forfeited, owing 
to bankruptcy, death, or inability to trace the rhnre- 
holders. At the »ame time we bave, nnder the articles 
of association, a clairn upon these people in re*pect 
of those calle should tbe opportuni'y of enforcing it 
arrive, and this will explain the rr t-e entry in the 
bi>lance-8heet of debtors for calls on forfeited shsrea. 
Since tbe accounts were made up a further sum of 
£10 has been got in for arrears, "nd we think that the 
small sum of £145 will be nltimately recoveraV>le. 
In the extract we have given yon from the manager's 
report you will observe that tbe Liberian coffee seems 
to snit onr estates remarkably well, and a great feature 
in its favour seems to be that this species is not sabjeot 
to tbe ravages of leaf disease. Our managers also inform 
us that be is now planting out 60 acres of this coffee, 
which, 1 understand, cones to maturity quicker than the 
Arabicft, therefore we may expect some returns from 
this source in a year. We are going on as actively 
as possible with the cultivation of tea, as yon will 
see from the report. As regards the future of tha 
company, we think that the policy that sboald ba 
adonted is to take snffici<>nt hi»rk to pay the outgoings 
each year, and when the coffee and tea extensions come 
into bearine it will be for the company to consider 
whether seme plan of reconstruction should not be 
adopted to reduce the large amount at which the 
cspital stands, and provide some further working capi- 
tal. With regard to the position of the produce 
market, I will ask Mr. Labouchere to address yon. 
I now beg to move : " That the directors' report and 
statement of accounts be, and tbey are hereby, received 
and adopted." 
Mr. James Labouchere said: — The market for bark 
has not been satisfactory f->r tbe last two or three 
years. 1 can state no reason why the market has not 
improved ; certainly tbe supplies of ba7k have not 
been I<iTg'r than in previous years. There have, how- 
ever, been certain changes of distribntiop. Oeylon, 
for instance, is redncing its production of bark, and 
10 doubt, next year there will be e. decrease, inas- 
n uoh as less bart is being imported from Central 
America and Java. The Javabartc isve y rich, and larger 
quantities have been sold at Amtterdam. Ezpeiieoce 
