126 
THP T)=?DP1CAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[August i, 1S90 
the present meetinf?, and they had been called 
together at as early a date as they possibly ooald be, 
to discuss the matter and form an opinion about it. 
Mr. Skrinb thought the redeeming point about 
the whole thing was the fact that the American 
Company were prepared to meet the shareholders 
here by saying— “ If you do not like it we will 
pay you up.” Few of them expected to see 
their money back, and if the American Com- 
pany paid them back they would be in a better 
position than they ever expected to be. For 
that reason he would suggest that the proposal 
be accepted and carried through. There was no 
doubt that the great object of that Company was 
to push Ceylon teas, not to make money out of the 
Company, and if they could get people in America 
to push Ceylon teas for their own interests, even 
if they did make a good thing out of it, they would 
indirectly make their fortune. 
The Chairman said it must show confidence on the 
part of Messrs. Wattson & Farr in their being able 
to do something, for thev need not have offered to 
pay them back their E50 per share. They could 
start their own Company, and pay nothing at all. 
He thought that the very fact of their offering to 
pay a shareholder a sum equal to E108 for his E50 
share, or if he did not care to stay in the Company 
the money which he had already paid for his share, 
showed their belief in the company which they 
were prepared to start. In Ceylon they did not 
understand the mode of doing things in America. 
They launched out into enormous advertisements. 
Mr. Pineo had paid 100 dollars for one advertisement 
alone — he forgot how many times it was put in — 
in one magazine. The money was been very soon 
swallowed up, and if Messrs. Wattson & Farr were 
going to do the thing as they professed they would 
do it. and as they sincerely hoped they would do 
it, — they were a well-known firm — they would have 
to use a large proportion of those 98.000 shares. 
The Hon. J. J. Geinlinton, said he thought at 
this stage of the meeting it would be well if he 
made a few remarks on the subject of the power of 
attorney for the information of the shareholders. 
His object in going to America bad nothing what- 
ever to do with this Company. He decided on the 
trip long before that Company had any existence. 
He went there on his private business, and nothing 
else, but it was thought desirable by the Board 
of Directors, as he was a director of the Company, 
that if be were going to America he should render 
such assistance as was possible to that Company. 
His primary object in going was his own private 
business, and he would very much rather have 
nothing to do with the power of attorney or 
anything else connected with the Company, hut be 
allowed to have his fortnight there to run about 
as he pleased. But having been asked by his co- 
directors to accept this responsibility — and it was 
a very heavy responsibility, — he might tell them 
that he should not accept it at all unless his 
position was defined, and defined in such a manner 
that he could not run away from it. He did not 
want to do anything outside the Company. He wanted 
to act, if he acted at all, within the decision 
arrived at, and not to be left with but’s and if’s 
and and’s, or anything. He must have it stated 
distinctly what his powers were, and he would not 
exceed them, but he would much prefer not 
havingl anything whatever to do with it. 
f' The Hon. T. N. Ciieirtir said that it might be 
concluded from what Mr. Kelly had said, which had 
heen'more or less supported by the Secretary, that 
the’New’York firm were dealing rather generously 
with* them, and that thev could have started quite 
as well without them. That was rather out of it. 
ToJltha New York firm it was very essential that 
they should get the same name that they had, 
and it was obvious that their desire was to secure 
the prestige which attached to the name, and from 
the patronage which that Company gave. It was 
their very natural desire to continue that Company, 
and not go against it. With reference to the 
remarks made by Mr. Grinlinton it would be obviously 
impossible for the shareholders to define what he 
should do in New York. What the shareholders 
bad to do that day was to authorize the Board 
of Directors to give instructions to him. It was 
not likely that the conditions would be made known 
generally that day, and at such a meeting. 
Mr. H. Bois : — May I ask how many shares 
have been subscribed for in the local Company ? 
The SxcEETARx: — 1,747. 
Mr. Bois ; — Are there any calls unpaid ? 
The Seobetaey : — There are 31 defaulters, owing 
El, 740. 
Mr. Bois Otherwise the capital is all cilled un ? 
The Seoeetaev E3i5 paid up, RIO payable 
on the 1st of October, and E5 to be called up 
after that. 
Mr. Mackwood I understand you to sav that 
if we did not adopt this proposal, even with the 
call that has to be made, we should have to stop 
in a eoronaratively short time. It would almost 
seem, if this i» the state of affairs, that we have 
absolutely no choice, and the proposal of Messrs. 
Wattson & Farr offers as the only chance of ever 
seeing any of our money back, for if the Company 
should stop there are practically no assets that 
could be converted into capital. It is not as if 
we had a stock of tea on hand. 
Mr. Lane quite concurred in their Company being 
taken up by this American Company, and of the 
directors being empowered to accept their terms, 
but at the same time he thought it should be 
distinctly stated by their directors, and they should 
say to their directors that day. that the tea 
that had to be bought should be bought from 
Ceylon and not in London, so that thev 
themselves might know what sort of tea it 
was that was being sold in their name. He thought 
Mr. Grinlinton should make that a sine que non. 
Mr. C. S. Aemstrong was afraid, in the present 
condition of the Colombo market, that they would 
be unable to supply the demand. 
Mr. Skeine said that it appeared to him that they 
were hardly in a position to carry out Mr. Lane’s 
suggestion that day, because Messrs. Wattson & 
Farr, as he read the telegram, had told them dis- 
tinctly that they must either accept the terms 
offered, or they must let the thing slide. That 
being the ease, considering the circumstances, he 
thought it was far better to accept the position, 
and he proposed that Messrs. Wattson & Farr’s 
suggestion bo accepted. 
Mr. Lane had pleasure in seconding the motion. 
The Chaiebian said that they had already shipped 
32,962 lb.. 12,499 lb. of which had been sold, and 
in shipping that quantity they were not able to 
obtain all the tea of the description they re- 
quired in the local market, and had to get some 
of it in the London market, so that if the pro- 
posed American Company were to be a big 
concern, which they wished it to be, he trusted 
it would be a bigger concern that the local 
market could supply, at present at all events. 
As long as they made it a sine qua non that the 
whole of Messrs. Wattson & Farr’s transactions were 
to be in purely Ceylon tea, he thought they must 
trust to the honour of the firm. 
Mr. Grinlinton thought it might well be put, as 
a request from the shareholders, that the Ceylon 
market— f. e. the local market — should be availed 
of as much as possible. He might mention that on 
