June t, 1893.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
841 
THE B A ND Alt APOLA CEYLON COMPANY, 
LIMITED. 
The second annual ordinary meeting of the Ban- 
darapola Oeylon Company, Limited, was held at 
the offices of the company, l(i, Philpot Lane, E. C, 
(in Thursday, lHth inst. 
Notice convening the meeting having been 
read, the chairman, Mr. G. W. l'aine, in proposing 
that the report and accounts as presented to the 
shareholders be received and adopted, said that lie 
hid very few observations to make on this occasion, as 
the report spoke for itself. He had to apologise for 
the absence of one of their directors, Sir Geo. A. 
Pilkington. m. i>., who was now on his way back from 
Ceylon, and would no doubt bring the very latest news 
rom the estate, as he had visited the company's pro- 
perty while in the island. They would notice from 
the balance-sheet that the share capital had been 
increased by the sum of £2,300 and the debentures 
by £500, which arose from the fact that they had 
allotted to the vendor the balance of shares and de- 
bentures due to him on the transfer of Muendeniya 
to the company, and from a call of t'l per share on 
A'800 shares ; consequently the dividend now to be 
declared was payable on a larger amount of capital 
than last year. He would ask Mr. Scott to second 
his motion, and as the latter gentleman had been 
in Ceylon towards the end of last year, and had 
visited the company's property, he was in a much 
better position to tell the shareholders about the 
estate than he (the chairman) was. 
Mr. C. J. Scott, in seconding the chairman's 
motion, said he had much pleasure in stating that 
he was very well pleased with his visit to the estate, 
and in his opinion the yield per acre should be 
most satisfactory. A feature of the estate is the 
factory field, thirty-four acres, containing a fine flat. 
This field yielded over 1,000 lb. per acre during the 
past year. 
The new clearings had been carefully clone, and 
nowhere had he seen finer tea in Ceylon than on 
the eighteen months old clearings. Great credit 
was due to Mr. James Anderson their late acting 
manager (who was present at the meeting), for the 
careful and efficient way in whidh he had attended 
to the Company's interests in this matter. The Com- 
pany had exceptional advantages in the way of laloar 
and cheapness of transport. The estate was a favourite 
one with coolies, and as the labour question was be- 
coming a rather serious one in Ceylon they were very 
fortunate in having a good labour supply. 
The Chairman's motion was then put to the meet- 
ing and carried unanimously, as were also the follow- 
ing resolutions : 
Proposed by the Chairman, seconded by Mr. C. J. 
Scott, "That a final dividend of 7J par cent, (free of 
income tax) be declared, making in all 10 per cent, 
for the year, payable forthwith." 
Proposed by Mr. L. F. Davies, seconded by Mr. D. 
Andrew, " That Mr. l)algleish, C. A., be re-elected 
auditor for the ensuing year.'' 
Proposed by the Chairman, seconded by Mr. J. 
Vicary, " That a vote of thanks be given to the 
Ceylon and London staffs for their efficient working 
of the Company's property and business." 
Proposed by Mr. A. Leslie, seconded by Mr. \V. 
W. L'jrd. " That a vote of thanks be and is hereby 
given to the Chairman and directors of the Company." 
A vote of thanks to Mr. Paine for his conduct in 
the chair was carried by acclamation, and in acknow- 
ledging same the Chairman took the opportunity 
of re:. ding a !' w in c.esting extracts from recent 
litters received from Mr. Hugh Eraser, the managing 
director. 
The proceedings then terminated. — II. and ('. Mail. 
THE CEYLON TEA PLANTATION'S 
COMPANY. 
From the local Times we take the following full 
port of Mr. II. K. Kn I herford's speech : — 
At the meeting Mr. Rutherford, the Chairman said; 
— I will not detain you very long as I have hut 
littje to add to what is stated in the directors' report. 
We meet you to-day with an account of our. steward- 
ship, shewing a profit for the past year, inclusive of 
the balance carried forward, of i'50,598 10s. 2d., or 
£4,616 8s. Od. in excess of the profits of the proceed- 
ing year, and this latter sum very closely represents 
the difference in the Ceylon expenditure in 1894 
as against that of 1803. 
THK VIELD. 
The vield of tea from our own properties was 
2,071,987 lb., or 37,008 lb. less than that of the pre- 
vious year, and the total out-put from our fac- 
tories was 4.825,498 lb., being 141,430 lb short 
of last year's out-turn. The shortfall from our 
own estates, it will be satisfactory for you to know 
does not in any way arise from failing vigour in the 
tea bushes. As you are probably aware the whole 
tea crop from Ceylon was under the estimated 
quantity, owing to unseasonable weather, and we 
suffered in this respect along with nearly all other 
Ceylon growers. Had, however, the crop from the 
island been up to anticipations we doubtless would 
have seen a fall in the price realised for onr 
teas. As it was the price was practically the 
same as for 1893, viz., 8'84 pence per lb., but we 
were able to produce the tea cheaper, not only by 
reason of the low exchange, but also by more econo- 
mic working. As this question of exchange in re- 
lation to price is one that disturbs the minds 
of a good many shareholders as bearing on the 
future of the tea industry, I would like for a moment 
to explain to you how an adverse exchange, or a fall 
in the price of tea, would affect this company. If the 
rupee were to rise by some unforeseen set of circum- 
stances to 1/6, and the price of tea remain at what it 
( has been during the last 2 years, or were on the other 
• hand the price of tea to go down lid in average price, 
and exchange to continue at last year's rate, we would 
still be able to pay you a 15 per cent dividend. 
ACREAGE. 
Having stated these two extreme positions you will 
be able to work out for yourselves any interme- 
diate state cf affairs you may think likely to arise, 
in the event of further currency fluctuations or a 
rise or fall in the selling price of our produce. 
You will observe, from the report, we were pluck- 
ing tea off 800 acres in excess of the previous year, 
and when this area is in full bearing it should add 
very considerably to our out-turn. "We have 367 
acres not yet in bearing, and beyond this wo can 
only plant up with tea a few hundred acres more 
from our forest reserves. Our developments, how- 
ever, lie in a different direction, for, as you see 
from the report, we now hold 1290 acres in coco- 
nuts properties, 420 acres of which are planted up. 
the trees varying from two to nine years of age. 
This season we are opening out 270 acres more in 
coconuts, and about 46 acres with Liberian coffee. As 
you are aware, no profits of any consequence can 
be looked for from onr coconut properties for a 
few years, but every year increases the value of 
these estates, and as we do not at present require 
profits from this source to pay our dividends we 
can afford to wait some little time for returns. 
Our Ceylon manager has been most assiduous in 
trying to acquire other coconut estates, but those 
offered us have either not been suitable or too 
high a figure has been asked, so that we have 
not been able to purchase more than the acreage 
stated. With regard to 
THK RF.SF.HVF. FUND, 
we propose to add this year 114.872 19s lOd, bringing 
it up to a total of 650,000. The accounts, shews 
that at the end of the year £14,316 29 lOd was in- 
vested in high class securities, and you will be 
pleased to hear that, at the present date, we have 
actually set aside the sum of 695,000 as a Cash 
Hoserve. The Securities have been entered at cost 
price, but are now at higher values than those at 
which we bought A'10,371 of the reserve has been 
