March i, 1898 .] 
THE TROPICAL AGRlCtJLTURlST. 
36615 
on the Estate before May ; however, he did work 
on the Estate before May, and yon will agree 
with me that from the time of his first reaching 
Costa Rica up lo the 31st of August, he has done 
a considerable amount in the development of 
our property. He has erected a water wheel in 
order to secure the water power. He has set up saw 
mills for the Timber, and for building the dwellings of 
the labourers ; he has weeded the land ; and he has 
felled a large quantity of new land, and begun to clear 
it. I think we must congratulate him on what he has 
already done. The future of the Company will receive 
the constant and vigilant attention of the Directors. 
To get the Accounts into a proper form so to be in- 
telligible to English people has not been altogether an 
easy matter. They are kept with great accuracy ac- 
cording to the method of Costa Rica, but the method of 
Costa Rica and the method of England are not quite 
the same thing. So much has this pressed on the at- 
tention of the Directors that they have invited one of 
the body, Mr. R. P. Macfarlane, to visit the planta- 
tions, and he will start next month, with a view to 
getting the affairs of the Company focussed in such a 
way as that the Directors first, and the Shareholders 
after, shall be able to tell at a glance exactly 
how our plantations stand at any one moment. 
The Directors have felt sometimes a little 
regret at the delays that belong to planting 
enterprise in this new land. Costa Rica is a place 
of large profits, but it is a place of large delays 
and of enormous difficulties. Here in London, and 
in England generally, there have been people who 
have occupied our places before us, and we have 
entered into their labours. In Sarapiqui the reverse 
obtains ; there has been nobody before us there, and 
we have had all the difficulties of pioneers ; but 
these are being gradually, steadily and economically 
surmounted, and I have no hesitation whatever in 
commending to you this Report and Accounts, and 
asking that they may be received and adopted. 
The motion will be seconded by Mr. Shand. 
Mr. J. L. Shand ; I have pleasure, Gentlemen, in 
seconding the adoption of the Report and Accounts. 
The Chairman has gone very fully into these matters, 
and I need not follow him into the details, but there 
are one or two things to which I should like to 
refer. In the first place neither myself nor my 
colleagues are altogether satisfied with the form which 
these Accounts take. We have been very much pressed 
for time to fulfil the conditions required to hold our 
General Meeting, and we have had difficulty in bring- 
ing the customs of Costa Rica into conformity with 
those customs which I myself and my colleagues, 
who have been on the Boards of other Companies 
with similar objects to this, consider absolutely neces- 
sary and indispensable. We shall as soon as possible 
get these things into the form which we consider 
desirable, and I can only say that the object of your 
Board, so long as it is constituted as it is at present, 
will be to put everything before you as plainly and 
straightly as possible. The Report is called an Annual 
General Report, but the actual transactions which 
are recorded extend only over the last quarter of 
the year under review, because the first two or three 
months we were busily engaged in the re-formation 
of the Company, which you will remember, and which 
I need not refer to further, hut which resulted very 
much in favour of the Shareholders ; in the second 
quarter we had considerable delay in the legal 
technicalities which had to be carried out in Costa 
Rica — translations, and various other works — in con- 
nection with the many things which had to be done 
before we got a title to the laud ; therefore, the 
actual working referred to in the Account is only 
over a period of three months, and I think we can 
say that in those three months we have made a very 
fair start. The labour has been organised, which 
is always a great difficulty when you go to a com- 
paratively new part of a country; and I feel very 
certain when we have the pleasure of meeting you 
again we shall have a tale of much greater pro- 
gress to tell. As I have had an opportunity of 
vieiting the Estates it may not he out of place here 
for me to tell you that I endorse every word which 
appeared in my report, which you probably all had 
the opportunity of reading, and that is, that we 
possess a very magnificent property, in fact we have 
a very large area of land capable of producing Coffee 
of the very highest quality, and we have proved 
that it is of the highest quality by the sample sales 
which appear in the Accounts. Wo have land 
capable of producing Cocoa, Rubber, Tobacco, and in 
fact all other tropical products, and although we do 
not embark upon these at present, we do not lose sight 
of them, and I am in great hope that we shall soon be 
able to tell you that we see our way to the development 
of some of these things. In the meantime our resour- 
ces are limited, and it is desirable that we 
should make use of those resources and 
the energies of our Manager to bring some- 
thing to market as soon as possible. It is for this 
object that we have for the present confined ourselves 
to Cofiee. The natural advantages which our land 
possesses are very gi-eat. We have a magnificent soil 
and a splendid climate — a climate which is not only 
suitable for tropical agricnltnre but which is a pleasant 
climate for labourers to dwell in — European or other- 
wise. We have an abundant rain-fall. We have well- 
watered lands with streams which we can utilize for 
our machinery all over it, and the natural advan- 
tages are very great ; but at the same time 
there are other factors which might nullify these 
natural advantages altogether if we cannot secfre 
them. One is a sufficient supply of labour, and 
another is means of transport by which we can get 
our requirements up to our Estates and get our 
produce to market easily. I think the labour difficulty, 
which I always looked upon as a thing we would 
have to face, is likely to adjust itself, and it will 
be for our Co-Director when he goes out, to see 
whether the supply of labour is sufficient, whether 
it would be desirable to import labour from some 
other part. With the advantages we have, with the 
good climate and the opportunity of giving constant 
work to labourers, I have no doubt we shall be aJble 
to secure all the labour we require. One other point 
is the means of transport. The President, who is 
a gentleman of the very highest intelligence, and 
who I am very glad to think has got a new term 
of office, I had a long interview with him on the subject. 
I ventured to point out that it was the duty of every 
civilized Government, if it wanted to take advantage 
of its waste laud, to provide means of communica- 
tion for pioneers who embarked money in those 
lands. He received me very kindly and talked very 
favourably on the subject, and he told me that 
a very considerable sum, 50,000 dollars, had been 
granted for the improvement of the road ^at 
leads to our property. When our Co-Director goes 
out, it will be his duty to impress upon the 
President that it will be impossible for ns to carry out 
what we hope to do if we do not have assistance 
in getting means of communication either by you i, 
river, or railway (and we have all these three st^jngs 
to our bow) to enable us to bring our produce to 
market. My friend Mr. Macfarlane, who joined^is 
Board at my special request, has had a very long 
and, I am happy to say, a prosperous experience 
of Coffee planting, and planting of other tropical 
products as well — exactly the experience which wo 
want to commend in the management of our pro- 
perty out there. He has the hearty co-operiCtion 
of all our Board, and we all attach the greatest 
value to his visit to Costa Rica. With these words 
I will second the adoption of the Report and Ac- 
counts. I am sure that in answer to any questions 
you have to ask we shall be glad to tell you all 
we know. 
Mr. C. N. P. Phipps: — ^I think we who are Share- 
holders have good cause to congratulate ourselves 
on the very satisfactory speeches that we have just 
listened to. If anything can be said to be certain 
of success in this world it looks really as if this 
Company, in which we are all interested, has a 
more than fair prospect of success and, let us hope, 
lultimAte- profit, I should just like, if you will allow 
