t24 
thf tropical agriculturist. 
[August i, 1890. 
holders which has been called for fhe 11th inst.. but 
of course this canriot be. At 'this meeting it is in- 
tended that the Directors shall obtain the permis- 
sion of the shareholders to amalgamate if they agree 
to do so; and if they so agree, Mr. Grinlinton, 
the Managing Director of the Company, who 
will, as we have advised yon, proceed to New 
York, will be authorized and empowered to discuss 
matters with you, and to finally conclude such terms 
as you may mutually agree upon. In short, as the 
matter presents itself to ns, at present the feeling is, 
that the payment in shares for promotion should be 
less, and that the number of shares to be sold for the 
benefit of the Company should be more; otherwise 
4-7tbs of the share capital will have been paid away 
or alienated outside the Company, whilst at the same 
time, dividend is payable upon these shares out of the 
earnings of a working capital of l-6th plus the 12,000 
shares to be held by the old ahareholders of the present 
Company. "We conclude that Mr. Pineo’s services 
would he taken over by the new Company. 
Mr. Grinlinton will take a full Power of Attorney 
with him so that no more lime will be lost than is 
unavoidable, and, as his time will be very limited in 
America (not more than a fortnight at the outside), it 
is highly desirable that whatever preliminary steps may 
be necessary should be well in hand, and all prepared 
by the time be arrives. He will leave here by the 
“Parramatta ” mail steamer fP. & O ) on 24th instant, 
expects to arrive in London on the 14th August, and 
he hopes to leave for America a week afterwards, 
arriving there about the end of August or within the 
first week of September. — We are. dear sir, yours 
faithfully, Daeley, But-lee & Co.. Agents and 
Secretaries. 
The Seceetaby also again read the telegrams 
given above. 
Mr. Shplto Skrine inquired as to what would 
be the liability of a shareholder in this new Com- 
pany. It appeared that a shareholder would have 
two shares for every original share he possessed. 
The Seceetahy ; — He will have no liability what- 
ever : 20 dollars will be the value of the shares. 
Mr. Skeine : — But the shares in the old Com- 
pany will have to be paid up before a shareholder 
can have the new ones. 
The Chaieman When the whole amount of 
E50 is paid up those shareholders who wish to 
remain in the new amalgamated Company would 
receive in exchange for their one PS'l share two 
20 dollar shares, at the value of El OP. which is 
taking the present rate of exchange. That would 
be the limit of liability, and there would be none 
beyond it, because you receive those two 20 
dollar shares for the one B50 share you already 
hold. There is one other matter I want you to 
take into consideration, and that is the question as 
to the advisability of carrying on this Company 
in the way proposed. Myself and my brother 
directors think it is the most advisable course, after 
giving it all the consideration we possibly could, 
because it is quite open for any other body of men 
to form a Comnany and carry on business without 
us. as Messrs. Wattson & Parr say in their letter. I 
think our object all through has been to push Ceylon 
tea and to do the very best we could for it, and I 
think that if this Company is amalgamated with 
the new Company as is now proposed, we should 
not only achieve the object which we bad from 
♦ be firpt in view — that of pushing our tea, but 
I see no reason at all why it should not prove a 
profitable speculation also to the shareholders, as 
leu" as the terms are adhered to ; i. <*., that the 
vn’ne of 10,000 shares is to be kept entirely as 
the working capital of tlie Companv. It would be 
open at the same time to any shareholder who 
wiahed to withdraw from the amalgamated Com- 
pany to withdraw from it. He has the option 
either of receiving two 20 dollar shares for his 
one ECO share, [or he can withdraw from the 
Company by receiving the amount that he has 
paid up here for his share. If he has paid up 
E50, be can withdraw by getting hie E50 back. 
Mr. P. G. A. Lane: — Will the control of the 
Company then be in New York ? 
The Chairman : — Certainly. 
Mr. Lane ; — Not in Ceylon ? Then what assur- 
ance should we have that they will buy and sell 
pure Ceylon tea ? 
The Chairman said that that was the condition on 
which thev would be made agents, and they agreed 
to that. In the letter which had just been read 
Messrs. Wattson & Farr said : “ As we wish it to 
be representative ptrietly of Ceylon industries." 
Mr. Lane : — Will the tea as heretofore be bought 
in Ceylon, or in London ? , 
The Chairman said that that was one of the minor 
arrangements which Mr. Grinlinton would make 
when he went to America, but they would have 
to make themselves perfectly sure that Ceylon tea 
alone would be sold. 
Mr. Serine assumed that a large proportion of the 
20.000 shares went to the Directors in America, 
or did the Directors here get any ehare? (Laughter.) 
The Chairman ; — No, I am afraid thev do not. 
Mr. Henry Boib aeked if the object of the 
meeting was to elicit from shaveholders an 
expression of opinion as to whether the proposal 
should be accepted or rejected, because it seemed to 
him utterly impossible for a body of men to seriously 
consider the figures put before them. The point that 
struck him more than anything else was the 
enormous proportion which Messrs. Wattson & Farr 
proposed should be allotted to themselves for pro- 
motion money. If he followed the figures correctly 
it amounted to this : — 12,000 shares to be allotted to 
the present shareholders in the Company in respect 
of the capital they had subscribed ; then they pro- 
posed to get 10,000 more shares taken up by the 
public in America; and they allotted to themselves 
28.000 shares— for what?— their services. Did they 
propose to pay nothing in respect of them, or were 
they to be 28,000 fully paid-up shares, as promotion 
money? What it meant was that they, as the pro- 
moteis of the Company, would have a claim 
upon the dividends to the extent of 58 per 
cent, the balance going to the shareholders who 
bad subscribed the capital. He did not think 
that was a matter th^y could consider and give 
an answer to in the course of a few days. 
He, for one, most certainly was not prepared to 
commit himself either to an acceptance or rejec- 
tion of the proposal at that meeting. No infor- 
mation was put before the shareholders, so far as 
he was aware, until they heard the letter which 
had just been read, and he thought the matter 
was far too important for them to come to a 
decision upon it at the present moment. 
The Hon. T. N. Christie said what Mr. Bois 
had referred to was very much what they bad to 
consider, but it was not a matter of merely granting 
time that would enable them to arrive at a satis- 
factory conclusion. What they really wanted was 
more information. It was hardly credible that a 
firm like Messrs. Wattson & Farr should propose 
to them that they should receive as promotion 
money shares representirg nearly a quarter-of-a- 
million sterling. It was hardly conceivable that 
they could possibly imagine that they should agree 
to terms such as those. They used the rather 
ambiguous expression that they required that money 
for the floating of the enterprize. If they 
meant floating the Company be had no hesi- 
tation in saying that the request for 28,000 fully paid- 
up shares was monstrous; if by “floating the 
enterprize ” they meant floating the business of 
the Company, advertising and pushing the Lusiness, 
