METROPOLITAN BUILDING SOCIETY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 772, 22 March 1910, Page 5

METROPOLITAN BUILDING SOCIETY.

ANNUAL MEETING. The nineteenth annual meeting of the Metropolitan Building , and Investment Sooioty was held in the. Commercial Union offices last evening, the- chairman of tho society, Mr. A. J. Littlejohn,. presiding ' over an attendance of about twenty members. In moving the adoption of the report and. balance-sheet, already published in The Dominion, Mr. Littlejohn remarked that New Zealand was still suffering a recovery from the extravagant land speculation and inflation of land values that prevailed in Wellington to ayi even greater extent than elsewhere in the Dominion. In this connection the directors were entitled to refer .with pardonable satisfaction to their claim that .the. society's business had been conducted on sound and careful lines, and that no' losses had been made. It was perhaps hardly necessary to mention that opportunities and even temptations had not been wanting to make advances that might have turned out: less desirable, especially when large sums were idle or temporarily invested at low rates. Along with the difficulty of obtaining suitable investments, the rates ruling for deposits had been high, and the net'result, after payment of interest and dividend at the. usual rate of seven per cent., and. putting £500 to reserve, was a balance of £121 Bs. 9d. This it was proposed to carry forward to next year's account. Compared with last year there. was a difference iu round figures of somo .8500 in the profits, shown in the respective amounts put to reserve. ' This shrinkage was accounted for by a number of items: Fines and sundries wore i£2l6 less, a gratifying feature, while interest on deposits was £94, expenses £63, dividend on "A" shares .£2lO, and interest on "B" ■ shares £58, all more by those amounts than last year, while the income from interest received from mortgagors had increased by £175 only. ' , The motion for the adoption of the report was then seconded by Mr. Henry Hume and carried unanimously. ■ Tho two retiring, directors, Messrs. J. G. W. Aitken and A. I. Littlejohn, were re-olccted unopposed, as. wero the society's auditors. Mr. Littlejohn announced that the annual dividend would be payable today. So far. as he could see, not only had the society incurred no losses, but there were no prospects of incurring any. The whole business was in an extremely safo position, and was on a thoroughly conservative and legitimate basis, without any speculative ■ element. The meeting closed with votes of thanks to the secretary (Mr. C, A. Ewen), .tie stoifi 1 uid, tint directors, ■