THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. 1,, 139.9. 
WYNAAD TEA COMPAIJY; LIMITED. 
The fifth annual meeting of The Wynaad Tea 
Company, Limitetl, was held at the company's 
otlice, 20, Kastcheap, E. C, on 30th Oct., Mr. 
J. C. Sanderson presiding. The secretary having 
read the notice convening the meeting, 
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the 
report and accounts, said :— You have all had a 
copy of the report and accounts, so I presume I 
may take them as read. As explained to you in 
the report, the accounts are only for eleven months, 
the reason being that our managing director in 
India wished that our year should end at the same 
time that the financial year of ail other tea com- 
panies ends, viz., at the end of March. The net 
profit of the working for the past season, after cre- 
diting the block account for the tea which had 
been" picked from the Cootacovil Estate, is £728 
23 9d and this profit the diiectors are going to 
■write oif the debit balance of last year. They re- 
gret they cannot give you a dividend ; but, of 
course, while tl'.at debit balance exists we cannot 
declare one. We hope that it will all be wiped 
away next year, and that there will be something 
to the good. Besides the credit which we have 
taken for the tea, there are legal charges to the 
extent} of £231 133, which have been outstandinsr 
for some years, but which are now all wiped off, 
BO that i think (and I hope you will agree with 
me) that this year's report is decidedly the most 
favourable one we have had for some time. The 
crops for the past season turned out very satis- 
factorily. The coffee crop was the largest gathered 
for some years, being fully 51 tons, and the director 
were very fortunate in selling it at a very high 
price before the fall in coffee took place. The 
pepper crop was also sold at a profit, fetching 
45s 6d per cwt, while the first pluckings of tea, 
which amounted to about 15,000 lb. from the Coo- 
tacovil estate from the 1895 planting, fetched an 
averac'e price of 7 4d per lb. With regard to the pre- 
sent p"osition of the estates the manager reports 
that their condition is highly satisfactory through- 
out, and the prospects for this year are en- 
couraging. The tea leaf is coming in so fast that 
ive shall have to put in more machinery, and 
according to the letter which we have received 
today we are some 7,0001b ahead of estimate. The 
estimate, as the report tells you, is 78,030lb for 
this season, and \> ith by far the heaviest month, 
©f the year to come we have in the first six 
months received nearly half the estimate. 
The shrubs are flushing splendidly, and they 
are in a very healthy condition. The estimate, 
for the pepper crop this season is about 20 
tons, and we are just on the point of 
sellinc it at considerably more than the price 
realised last year. With regard to the coffee crop, 
it will probably be from 18 to 20 tons, but the 
market is rather too uncertain for us to forecast 
what we shall get for it, although we think it 
will come on a better market. The outlook f r 
1900-1 is very promising. The coffee trees are 
making splendid wood, so that we miy expect a 
considerable increase over this year's crop, and the 
t»a yeild will be much more, because we shal 
have the first hundred acres in full bearing, and 
we shall also pluck from the second hundred 
acres. Under these circumstance the directors con- 
fidently look for a yield of about 150,000 lb. I 
do not want to hold out too sanguine a view, 
but I think we have turned the corner, and that 
the time is coming when we shall all be repaid 
for our long waiting. Before asking you to adopt 
the report and accounts, I shall be very pleased, 
with the assistance of Mr. Walker, to answer any 
questions any shareholder may wish to pat to me, 
1 have now great pleasure in moving the adoption 
of the report; and accounts. 
The resolution was seconded by Mr. Labouchere. 
In reply to a question from Mr. Summerhay.*, 
the Chairman stated that the proceeds of the tea 
v,eri credited to the block account and not to the 
revenue account, bicause the tea was not in full 
bearing. 
In reply to a question from Mr. Donald Andrew, 
Mr. Walker stated that with the exception of a 
short period at the beginning of the year they 
had had no ditticulty in getting labour, in fact, 
there was far more labour than they could em- 
ploy. They had lost no tea through scarcity of 
labour, so that he thought they cjuld fairly say 
that they would be able to get all the labour 
they might require. 
The reporc and accounts were then unanimously 
adopted. 
On the proposal of Mr. Labouchere, seconded 
by Mr. Andrew, Mr. Sandenson was unanimously 
re-elected a director of the company. 
Mr. Knott proposed, and Mr. Goodwin seconded 
the Ire-election of the auditors (Messrs. Lovelock 
& Co.). The motion was carried unanimously. 
The next business of the meeting was to con- 
sider the resolutions for financing the company by 
borrowing money secured upon debentures. 
The Chairman in proposing these resolutions 
said : — You will no doubt remember that last May 
we had a meeting, and a resolution was passed 
giving the directors power to raise £10,000 in de- 
bentures to carry on our properties and to pay off 
a large block account which we owed. There were 
certain informal inatiers which interfered with 
carrying this proposal through, and one, the most 
important, was the question of taking away all 
our borrowing powerw. Those shareholders who 
understand the working of tea will know that the 
business has to be carried on by means of agencies, 
and that we have to borrow money for tlie up- 
keep — that is the cultivation of our crops until they 
are marketed. The resolution as it stood would 
have debarred the directors taking powers to borrow 
money for this purpose. We have since recon- 
structed the resolution, and 1 now beg to bring 
it to your notice. I am sorry to say that we 
have had to change our agents, and it is with grea* 
regret we have done so, for we have experienced 
every consideration and assistance at their hands. 
It was, however, hardly within their piovince 
TO take up debentures in another tea company, 
so they informed us that if we could make other 
arrangements they would not stand in our way, 
that is to say they very kindly allowed us 
to break our contract in the middle of the 
season. We have therefore arranged with Messrs. 
R. and J. Henderson to take the balance of 
any debentures that the shareholders do not 
wish to take. The directors have subscribed 
for £500 each, and you may be sure it is con- 
sidered a very good and safe investment as 
otherwise your directors and Mnstis. K. and 
J. Henderson would not be willing to take them 
up. Our property is a valuable one ; an indepen- 
dent valuation which we had made in 1897 
amounted to £40,000, and since then the value 
has been increasing by a pait of the acreage of 
tea bavins' come into cultivation, and the coffee 
and pepper crops having greatly improved. I 
repeat, therefore, that with these fine and valu- 
able properties as security, it is a very good and 
