THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept, i, 1897. 
1 90 
compared with the merchantable sizes. It is being 
utilised as material from which to manufacture 
coverings for boilers and steam pipes to lessen the loss 
of heat by radiation, mica being a good non-conductor 
of heat as well as of electricity. The scrap mica 
blocks are first put through a series of corrugating 
rolls which loosen the laminae ; these are finally 
separated from each other by air currents, after 
which the sheets are again put through a process 
which corrugates them singly. They are then laid be- 
tween light galvanised wire-netting, made into webs of 
a thickness suitable for the particular purpose they 
are intended to serve, and stitched with wire on a 
machine the first of its kind yet made. The flexible 
web of mica is covered with canvas stiffened at the 
back with millboard, and rounded into the desired 
shape. The covering when finished is fastened on the 
pipes by firmly lacing the edges together . — Juilimi 
Plantirs' Gaxefte. 
THE ANGLO-CEYLON AKD GENERAL 
ESTATES CO., LTD. 
Diuectoes : — Quintin Hogg, Chairman; Claude E. 
8. Bishop, Norman William Grieve, Alex. William 
Crichton, Managing Director ; an d Henry Kerr 
Rutherford. 
Report of the Board ot Directors to he presented 
to the stockholders at the eleventh annual ordinary 
general meeting, to be held at 20, Eastebeap, 
London, E. 0., on Tuesday, July 20tb, 1897, 
at noon. 
The Directors herewith submit to stockholders 
their report of proceedings, together with the ac- 
companying accounts for the lltii year of the working 
of the Company. 
The net profit as shewn in the audited accounts 
annexed hereto amounts to tJh, Ids 19d, and the 
directors recommended the payment of a dividend 
at the rate of .7* per cent per annum on the Consoli- 
dated Stock of the Company. The dividend now 
recommended as above, will, if assented to by the 
meeting, lie payable on tlie fil’d August 1S97, at the 
London Office of the Company’s Bankers. 
In the antnmu of 1896 the Committee of share- 
holders referred to in the last report of the directors, 
after making considerable enquiry and conferring 
with the directors of the Company, formulated a 
scheme for the reduction ol capital, and re- 
arrangement of the shares of the Company. The 
scheme w'as duly laid before and nuaimously adopted 
by full meetings of shareholders in December, 1896 
and .January 1897, and in due course it received the 
necessary sanction of the High Court. 
The effect of the above changes was to reduce the 
capital of the Company to £260,000 Consolidated 
Stock, of which the old preferred shareholders were 
allotted £204,610, and the old ordinary shareholders 
.£15 490, while the preferred shareholders received 
the dividends in arrear partly in cash, and partly 
in surplus certificates payable as therein specified. 
New certificates have been duly prepared and are 
being issued in exchange for the old share warrants 
to bearer, as and when surrendered. 
The name of the Company was also, pursuant 
to resolutions, adopted at the above meetings, changed 
from The Oriental Estates Company, Limited, to 
The Anglo-Ceylon and General Estates Company, 
Limited, and this change was officially sanctioned 
on the 26th April 1897. 
In furlhec pursuance of the policy already ap- 
proved by' shareholders, and referred to in the last 
Report of the Hoard, the directors have satisfaction in 
stating that the liquidation of the Highlands Com- 
pany of Mauritius, which had been occupying their 
attention for some time, has made considerable 
progress during the past twelve months. A large 
area has been disposed of in lots to native culti- 
vators and others, and there is good reason to hope 
that the remaining lands will gradually be taken 
op in a similar manner. The factory on this estate, 
which is a powerful one, and capable of dealing with a 
large crop, will, together with about 500 acres of 
selected cane land, he retained by this Company, and 
worked as a Central factory. 
The quantity of sugar from the Mauritius Estates, 
amounted to 11,960 tons as against 12,066 tons in 
the previous year, the canes being reaped from a 
smaller area. 
The tea crop in Ceylon during the period under- 
review amounted to l,74fi,824 lb., which includes 
21,406 lb. from bought leaf, as against a total of 
1,649,577 lb. in the previous year. The gross average 
price was 7’95 pence per lb. in London. 
The cocoa crop was 1,346 cwt as against 1,390 cwt. 
in the previous year, and the price realised was 60 8 
per cwt. 
With the consent of the Trustees for the De- 
benture holders the outlying estate of Havillaud in 
Ceylon, was sold as from the 1st January of the 
present year. 
The results of the working of the estates in 
Ceylon and Mauritius respectively are given in the 
profit and loss account, calculated at the average 
rate of exchange of L2i, as against 1/1 J in the year 
1895-6. 
The directors have pleasure in expressing their 
satisfaction with the manner in which their repre- 
sentatives, both in Mauritius and Ceylon, have per- 
formed theirdutiesmider circumstances of considerable 
anxiety. 
Mr, C. E. S. Bishop, a member of the Share- 
holder’s Committee above mentioned, was on the 
18tli February last elected to a seat on the Board 
ofjthe Comiiany. 
Many large shareholders have expressed a desire 
that Mr. S. C. Macaskie, the Chairman of the 
Shareholders’ Committee, should join the Board, 
and a motion to that effect will be submitted to 
the meeting, and, if it is carried, the necessary alter- 
ations in the articles of Association will be laid 
before the extraordinary meeting of which notice is 
endorsed hereon. 
In accordance with the articles of Association, 
Mr. Henry Kerr Rutherford retires from the Board, 
and, being eligible, offers himself for re-election. 
The Auditors, Messrs. Welton, .Tones & Co., also 
retire from office, and have expressed their readiness 
to act if re-clected. — By order of the Board, 
Henry Greey, Secretary. 
7th July, 1897. 
SCHEDULE OF ACREAGES. 
CEYLON. 
ea in 
bearing. 
ea not in 
bearing. 
ew Tea 
learings. 
ocoa, 
Coffee, 
Carda- 
loms, &c. 
uel Re- 
serves, 
Grass 
ields,&c. 
y 
c2 
CO 5 
O Si 
£ 
o 
iz; " 
a B 
feo 
H 
Acres. 
Acres. 
Acres. 
Acres. 
Acres. 
Acres. 
Acres. 
6,260 
1,100 
413 
1,197 
1,144 
3,328 
12,442 
MAURITIUS. 
Under Cane Total. 
Acres. Acres. 
Estates owned by the Company.. 2,345 4,26C 
Estates in which the Company is 
Interested . . . . 3,257 7,310 
DIMBULA VALLEY CEY:.. 0 N TEA CO, 
THE CHAIRMAN’S SPEECH. 
Gentlemen, — In moving the adoption of this, our 
first annual report and accounts, which has been 
circulated amongst the shareholders, and has appeared 
in many of the public pilots, 1 think I may safely 
congratulate you on your year’s working, especially 
when all the circumstances and difficulties connected 
with our first off-go are taken into account. First 
we experienced difficulty in getting possession of two 
of the properties ; secondly, we had an abnormal 
