i& THE TROPICAL 
"DRAFT OF PEOSPHCTUS OF A COMPANY PROPOSED 
TO BE INCORPORATliD UNDER THE TITLE OF THE 
NKW DIMBULA COMPANY, LIMITED. 
Capital £13 t,(iO0, oivided into 4,000 "A" 
shares of £10 each; 6, 000 " B " shaves of £10 each, 
and 3,000 "O" shares of £10 each. 
Directors :—Herberc Brooke Esq., (Messrs 
Brooke & Co..) Sfc. Petera Chambers, Cornhill, 
London. VVilliain Stephenson Bennett, Esq., 
Castle Field, Calne, Wiits, and formerly lliverside, 
Ceylon. William James Carver, Esq,, 3, Oxford 
Square, Hyde Park, Loudon, formerly Registrar 
-of the Supreme Court, Ceylon, Jas. Boyd Morpliew, 
Esq., 7, Leinster Square, Bayswater, London, 
foimerly Manager of the Oriental Banking Ccrpor- 
atioii, Colombo. 
'• PROSPECTUS. 
"The unfortunate position or theUimbnla CofJee 
Company, Limited, of Ceylon, is' but too well 
known, both to the Debenture holders and the sliare- 
holders. The Debenture interest being in arrear, 
the Trustees, in March last, were compelled, 
under their trust or mortgage deed, to take 
proceedings against tlie Company with the 
view to the realisation of their security. The 
result shortly of these proceedings, was that Judg- 
ment was entered up agaln.'^t the Company upon 
the understanding that it was not to be act.td 
upon until the end of January, 1885, so that the 
Company might have an opportunity of paying up 
the overdue interest and going on. Unfortunately 
this has been out of their power. The Trustees 
for the Debenture holders have now announced, 
that having taking Counsel's opinion, they find 
it impossible to undertake the management of the 
Estate, under the powers in their trust deed, and 
have therefore given instructions to enforce their 
Judgment against the Company with the view to 
a fiscal sale. Jn the present slate of Ceylon, this 
sale, though no doubt unavoidable under the 
circumstances, must be disastrous to the old Com- 
pany, for it is believed the trustees will be for- 
tunate if they obtain £20,000 for the Estate, a 
sum which would hardly be sufficient to pay 
the Debenture holders 5s in the £ on their 
debt, whilst the shareholders would lose every 
filing. Under these circumstances this Company 
has been formed to purchase the Estate, 
with a view, if possible, so to nurse and 
develop it, principally as a Tea estate, as even- 
tually to recoup to the members of the old 
Company a portion of the loss they would 
otherwise sustain. * * » 
" la order to purchase the Estate, and work 
it in accordance with Mr. Sabonadiere's 
advice, a sum of about £40,000 will be 
required, which will be applied in or towards 
the purchase of the estate, and in planting 
Tea and other suitable products, the upkeep, and 
cultivation of the estate, during its development, 
and in defraying the general expenses of tlie 
Company * * * Upon the assumption that the 
purchase money of the estate will be sufficient to 
pay back 5s in the £ to the Debenture holders, 
the Directors invite each Debenture holder to 
apply for "A' shares, to the amount of twenty- 
five per cent of the sum due upon the Debentures 
held by him, and upon his applying for, taking up 
and paying for such shares, there will be allotted 
to him, in addition, fully paid "B" shares to 
the amount of the remaining seventy-Mve per cent. 
"The Shareholders of the old Oonipany will thus 
veceive nothing in respect of their shares, but the 
AGRICULTURIST. [JtiLV 1. 1908. 
Directors of tliis Company, offer to them three 
paid-up "C" shares in the new Company, in 
respect of every four shares they hold in the old 
Company, upon condition, that for every three 
" C " shares, so allotted, the ov;uer shall apply, 
take up, and pay for one " A" share — that i.s to 
say, every Shareholder in the old Company 
taking up and paying for one ' A" share in the 
new Company will have allotted to him, without 
further payment, three paid-up "C" shares, 
" If this scheme is carried out, it is proposed that 
the " A " Shareholders, whose shares will repre- 
sent the new Capital brought in, shall be 
entitled to receive, oufe of the profits, a cumulative 
Preferential annual dividend of eight per cent ; 
that the " B " Shareholders, whose shares will 
represent the loss incurred by the present Deben- 
ture holders, .shall, after payment of the last 
mentioned Dividend, be entitled to receive, out of 
the profits, a like cumulative Preferential Annual 
Dividend of eight per cent and that after pay- 
ment of these two Preferential Dividends the 
' ' C Shareholders, whose shares will represent the 
total loss incurred by the Shareholders of the old 
Company, shall be entitled to receive, out of the 
profirs an Annual Dividend of six per cent. Any 
further profits will be divided among all classes 
of Shareholders alike." 
DIYAGAMA BETWEEN 1883 AND 1903. 
The gradual failure of "coffee" brought 
on a spell of " hard times " in the planting 
districts of Ceylon, of unexampled severity ; 
and everywhere the utmost economy had 
to be practised. As soon as Diyagama came 
under the management of Mr Dick-Lauder, 
a specially careful system was adopted. Al- 
though 2,165 acres came under cultivation, 
yet three assistants sufficed, in place of the 
dozen or so whose names were enrolled in 
the early days of the property. The early 
" eighties " became a time of transition all 
over the coffee country and we find that, by 
1884, Diyagama was on the "cinchona 
bridge which gradually led over to " tea." 
In the Directory return of this year, 2,053 acres 
were given as "coffee and cinchona," with 
separately, 253,000 bushes of coffee, 600,000 
trees of cinchona and 10,000 tea plants. Two 
years later, under the new Company, the 
fields of ' coffee-alone" had disappeared, 
"coffee and cinchona" made up 1,865 acres, 
cinchona-alone 200 acres and tea-alone 100 
acres— so that the oldest tea-field on the 
estate must be 17 to 18 years of age. Still 
another two years, to 1888 — and we find a 
great change, with a retiirn of no less than 
1,442 acres of tea, only 190 of cinchona and 
676 of coffee ; while three years later in 1901 
the tea had increased to 1,688 ; coffee was down 
to 458, and cinchona to 150 acres. Then a 
few years more saw poor old coffee quite 
gone out as well as the cinchona, all the 
fields in 1897 being planted with tea which 
covered, as it does today, some 2,350 acres, 
the rest being reserve forest, all but the 
land occupied by buildings and grass 
fields. Diyagama has a splendid reserve of 
forest-land of 600 to 700 acres ; (while 
Meddecoombra in the same district with 
about the same area under tea has much 
less of reserve"). 
DIYAGAMA IN THE PRESENT DAY 
ig a pictuve of carefully-tended, vigorous* 
