IVIarch  I,  1897.]  THfe  1‘ROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  607 
seems  to  be  that  so  far  as  Tea  Companies  are 
concerned,  there  are  on  y two  uses  for  a Caah 
Kesei  ve  Fund  : — 1st,  to  provide  money  to  pay  off 
debts,  such  as  Debentures  ; and  2mi  to  equalize 
dividends  in  the  case  of  Companies  which  have 
a proportion  of  tlieir  capital  in  I’reference  Shares. 
Where  a Company  is  indebted  under  a mort- 
gage, or  by  a Debenture  issue,  or  in  any  other 
way,  there  must,  of  course,  he  a date  when 
the  principal  of  such  debt  falls  due,  and  we  quite 
think  that  such  a Company  should,  out  of  its 
current  ))ro(its,  build  up  a Cash  Reserve  Fund 
to  pay  off  such  debt.  And  again,  as  regards 
Companies,  the  capital  of  which  is  divided  into 
Preference  and  Ordinary  shares,  although  the 
Preference  shares  are  not  “indebtedness”  in  the 
ordinary  acceptation  of  the  term  ; yet  they  may 
he  said  to  operate  as  a mortgageon  thefuture profits 
of  the  Company  (assuming  that  they  are  “Cumu- 
lative” Preference  shares,  as  is  usually  the  case)  ; 
and  it  is  in  such  cases  also  very  advisable  to  provide 
ahead — by  means  of  a Cash  Reserve  Fund — for 
the  payment  of  interest  on  such  preference  shares 
in  view  of  the  possibility  of  a falling-off  in  re- 
turns, coupled  with  the  necessity  of  payment 
of  the  preferential  interest,  entrenching  in  the 
fair  earnings  of  the  ordinary  capital.  But 
in  the  case  of  Companies  which  are  not  indebted 
In  any  way,  ami  have  their  capital  only  on  one 
cl.iss  of  shares,  we  cannot  really  see  that  there 
is  any  special  necessity  for  a Cash  Reserve 
Fund. 
Again,  our  contemporary  talks  of  Reserve 
Funds  adding  to  the  “stability”  of  Tea  Com- 
panies. If  he  refers  to  those  with  Debenture  or 
Preference  share  issues  we  may  agree  with  him; 
but  let  us  take  the  case  of  a Company  with 
only  one  class  of  shares:  if  a “Reserve  Fund” 
is  created  the  value  of  the  shares  will  of  course 
go  up  correspondingly,  but  the  value  will  at 
the  same  time  fluctuate  in  accordance  with  the 
increase  or  falling-off  of  the  annual  profits  of 
the  Company.  We  must  continue  to  hold,  in 
fact,  that  the  “stability”  of  our  Tea  Companies, 
depends  mainly  on  the  stability  of  the  Tea  In 
dustry — ^Reserve  Fund  or  no  Reserve  Fund. 
When,  however,  we  look  down  the  Colombo 
and  London  Ten  Share  lists,  we  do  find  one 
point  of  general  difference  of  considerable  im- 
portance, namely  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
London  concerns  have  “Debenture  or  Preference 
issues” — or  both;  while  in  Colombo  such  a thing 
is  a rare  exception.  In  other  words — and  speaking 
generally — Colombo  Companies  are  not  indebted 
and  their  future  earnings  are  nob  .aiortgaged. 
That  being  so,  our  prosperous  local  Companies 
may  be  regarded  as  occupying  a first-class  posi- 
tion ; for,  so  long  as  the  Tea  industry  exists,  they 
can  divide  their  profits  among  those  shareholders. 
The  contention,  however,  seems  to  be  that  in 
view  of  the  possibility  of  a time  coming  when 
there  may  be  no  profits  to  divide,  the  Reserve 
Fund  will  be  there  to  provide  a dividend  ; but 
would  that  fact  really  improve  matters?  Out  in 
Ceylon,  every  shareholder,  or  his  representative, 
knows  pretty  w-ell  all  about  the  position  of  the 
Tea-planting  industry,  and  we  rather  think  there 
w'ould  be  a general  outcry  if  Directors  com- 
menced to  pay  smaller  dividends  and  announced 
that  they  intemled  in  future,  to  combine  with 
Tea-planting  a species  of  Savings  Bank  business 
to  guard  against  the  shareholders,  like  small 
boys,  spending  their  pocket-money  injudiciously  ! 
Let  it  not  be  forgotten  too  that  there  are  ex* 
tremely  limited  means  here  for  the  profitable  in- 
vestment of  money  of  the  character  of  Reserve 
Funds  which  practically  become  Trust  Funds. 
Even  with  fairly  good  security,  shareholders  can 
themselves  do  better  with  their  dividends,  than 
Directors  would  be  able  to  do  for  them  if  the 
money  went  to  a Reserve  Fund.  On  the  whole, 
therefore,  .so  far  as  local  Companies  are  concerned, 
we  cannot  say  that  a case  for  “ Reserve  Funds” 
has  been  made  out  ; while  in  respect  of  London 
Ceylon  Companies,  considering  the  keen  business 
criticism  to  which  they  must  be  liable  in  the 
“ City,”  w’e  should  like  to  see  financial  authori- 
ties at  home,  lead  the  w ay,  before  we  presumed 
from  this  end,  to  dictate  to  their  Chairmen  and 
Directors  wdiat  would  be  the  best  course  for 
them  to  pursue. 
INSECT  PESTS  AXD  THEIR  ENEMIES  : 
AN  INTERCHANGE  BETWEEN  CEYLON  AND 
SOUTHERN  INDIA  PROPOSED  BY 
MR.  E.  E.  GREEN. 
_ Mr,  E.  E.  Green  of  Eton,  Pundaluoya.  writing 
on  the  4th  Feb.  gives  us  the  ’ following 
interesting  information  : — 
“I  have  been  interested  in  the  copy  of  the 
Hawaiian  Planters'  Monthly  with  the  inlerestinw 
report  on  Insect  Pests  by  Mr.  Eocbele.  There 
seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  the  introduction  of 
the  natural  enemies  of  the  several  insect  pests 
has  been  most  successful  in  Haw'aii— thanks  to 
the  personal  supervision  of  such  an  expert  as 
Mr.  Kcebele  has  proved  himself  to  be. 
“ I am  glad  to  note  by  a letter  publi.slied  in 
your  January  number  of  the  T.  A.  that  the  Indian 
Planters’  Associations  are  taking  up  the  subject 
of  the  introduction  of  Lady  Bird  ‘Beetles  aiM 
are  an.xious  to  join  us  in  securing  the  services 
of  Mr.  Kcebele.  The  letter  in  question— headed 
Notes  on  Lady  Birds  and  Cotlee  Bug  on  the 
Lower  Pulneys’ — gives  some  interesting  parti- 
cubars  of  an  indigenous  species  of  Lady  Bird 
{Chilocoi  US  Hiyrtt'Us)  that  appears  to  prey  upon  the 
Green  Bag  {Lecaniuni  Virulc)  in  that  country.  Mr. 
Newport,  however,  reports  that  though  the  beetle.s 
are  doing  good  w'ork  in  a small  way  tliey  are  not 
increasing  in  numbers  as  rapidly  as  could  be 
wished.  Tliis  is  only  wdiat  miglit  be  expected 
from  an  indigenous  insect  which  has  no  doubt 
its  own  natural  enemies  to  keep  it  in  check  in 
its  native  country.  But  it  has  struck  me  that 
this  sa,uie  Indian  beetle,  if  introduced  into  Cey- 
lon, might  iiaie  a fieer  hand — and  might  prove 
a real  service  on  the  few  coffee  plantations  re- 
maining in  Ceylon.  This  little  experiment  would 
at  any  rate,  be  inexpensive  and  easily  carried 
out.  I should  be  glad  to  correspond  with  Mr. 
Newport  wdth  a view'  to  the  interchange  of 
natural  enemies  of  insect  pests  between  India 
and  Ceylon.  We,  on  our  side,  might  be  able  to 
supply  the  Indian  planters  with  a few'  species 
which-hampered  by  their  own  parasites-are 
unable  to  do  appreciable  service  in  tliis  country 
but  which  if  sent  to  India-minus  their  enemi&s 
—might  increase  as  the  Australian  beetles  did 
in  Hawaii. 
We  certainly  hope  the  experiment  will  be 
made. 
♦— 
HORREKELLY  ESTATE  COMPANY 
LIMITED. 
The  annual  geueral  meeting  of  shareholders 
Registered 
othce  (Messrs.  Lewis  Brown  & Co.’s)  on  Feb  6th  at 
noon.  Mr.  C.  E.  H-  Symons  presided  and  those  pre- 
sent or  represented,  were,  xMr.  F.  W.  Bois,  Mrs, 
