DALGETY AND CO.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10239, 7 January 1899, Page 8

DALGETY AND CO.

A copy of the Directors , report and statement of accounte to.the 30th June, of Dalgety and Company, is to hand, with a report of the proceedings at the annual meeting in London on the 10th November. The Chair:mn, Mr E. T. Doxat, in his speech at the ■meeting, said, congratulating the shareholders on the report: —It may in some respects be a monotonous one, in that we .have to repeat more or lees what we have said for the last few years, but in face of the "Unfavourable seasons which have prevailed ,in the colonies, the diminished production of wool, and the continued low rates ruling for money, I think it is no alight thing to be able to say that we have not only held our own, but are able, after making ample provision for aQ bad, and so far as we can judge all doubtful accounts, to maintain our regular 8 per cent, dividend and to carry forward at credit of profit and loss £3570 lls 2d more than last year, leaving the amount so dealt with at the respectable sum of £20,438 17s 2d. Speaking with respect to the future, Mr Doxat said:—lt is most difficult with a climate like that of Australasia, and with constant fluctuation in the values of produce, to form any strong forecast as to the prospeote of the-colonies. Up till quite recently the pastoral interests have in wide tracts of : country suffered from drought, and the accompanying looses of stock and extra exponsea m management; but recently rains /have fallen in most parts of Australia, and although considerably more ie still required yet tlie worst of the drought seems now over, and both in Australia and in New Zealand there seems every prospect of abundant grain crops and a large exportable surplus, whilst the dairying industry is also vigorously being pushed, and the quality of the better and cheese improved. The mining industry also, especi&Jiy in Western Australia, shows signs of great activity, and although many of these j mining ventures may prove unremunerative i yet in the aggregate they add very largely to the volume of colonial trade; on* the whole. : therefore, I think we may look for a general though perhaps not a rapid improvement, in colonial prospecte, and I need hardly say that what benefits the colonies generally can hardly fail to add to the prosperity of a company so deeply interested in their welfare !as we are.