ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 6 September 1915, Page 5

ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS.

HAWERA

m\T annual, meeting of sharheoldew itil u£? Ye (:<J,l '?!xn X was held in the \L MrblCnv • b'aidluas on Saturday, Mr &: spratt, Uuurnian or Diieetors • presiding over a large attendance ,x,^ craireCtors' re^orfc recommended that 6 per cent, interest (£610) be paid to snarehoiders; that 2d be paid on the spring butter-fat,. £853- 3d on ftrt butter-fat, £150;' and a ftnh r/' llle> Jance will be held until such nme as the produce reaches LonW?- StatisticS °f the year wer o as folPounds of milk received, 31 250 Bi.*J. pounds of butter-fat, 1,1^,324 Tver! age test, 3.80. ' c mni^^TQ 86 Ma^«g-Ponnds of ?i% oa,r '°b9j po,unds of I^tter-fat, 1,W8,98U; pounds of cheese made Q2Ba 2S»»7lq CWt- J qUarterS 16 IN? 2,88^/59; pounds of cheese from life butter-fat, 2.675; pounds^^Sk to make lib cheese, 9.808; average test d./8/; cost of manufacture. .59d- cost t?onf UI?JM aCtUP2 <inc!" din S dep'recil; tion) .G6d; cost per lb f.o.b. (Include mg depreciation), .78d; cost fob .(2dy paid out for cheese, l s 6d It v estimated a further penny will H» available later, on in th e year milk ed 9 7 0r rci£^ fcter Maf ing-Pound 8 of m?'\J' }Mb A; P? n uds of butter-fat, 102,343; pounds ot butter made (53 tons 8 cwt. 0 quarters 13 lbs), 120 629----over-run, 17.86: average test, 3'7Q3r pay-out spring butter, Is 3d: pay-out autumn butter, Is 6d .. £ta . balance-sheet showed that tne liabilities included share capital £12,375; bank, £1663; reserve, £1347-' appropriation account, £10,032; sundry contingent liabilities, mostly for shares in other companies, £2977. The assets* apart from factories and creameries, included stock on hand, £6714: sundry debtors, £1013; shares in various companies, in round figures, £4000. The appropriation account showed that the balance brought forward was £5102, and that the profit for the year had been £10,014. Out of this had been paid, honorarium and directors* fees, £140 10s; further payments to suppliers, £4380; interest to shareholders, £555; the balance to credit being £10,032.

The principal items of expenditure during the , year had been milling, £81,668; butter boxes, £119; cheese cases, £1344; coal, £900; power, £162; water, £49; wages, £3800; requisites^ £1000; repairs, etc., £370; . depreciartion, £926; carting, £305; charges oil consignment, £12,792; exchange, £623; freezing. £1250; horse feed, £193; salaries, interest, and sundries, £713. The receipts had been: For cheese, £109,598; butter., £6707. In moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet the Chairman congratulated shareholders on the pay-out ft the Company was able to make this year. He did not think that any factory in Taranaki had made a better pay-ont than Hawera. They would have noticed from their balance-sheets that a certain amount of produce had been taken at an estimated value; that value was 745, and if it realised that figure the pay-out would be ls 7d, if not Is 7§d. * He questioned if any other factory, had clone any better than that, if as well. In regard to the valuation of their stocks the Hawera Company was in exactly the same position as other companies: .they all valued similarly and if their produce did not realise that fi^re other companies could not nay it out, notwithstanding that the 7 * may have said they were going to "do. If, on the other hand, it realised more than the estimate they could nay out more.

In ren'ly to a question the Chairmans^id that the directors had carefully considered the question of going in for motor waggons to do their carting, but had come to the conclusion that the possible saving would not justify the o-itlay. If one motor, lorry rould have done all Ihe work it might have been a poo.i business proposition, but it would not be safe to rely on one machine in case of a breakdown. THE BOX COMPANY. Mr Corrigan remarked that there were one or two items in the balancesheet to which he desired to refer in regard to their contingent liabilities. Every year they were creeping up and up. There was, for instance, the Box Company formed many years ago under the impression that it would enable dairy companies to get their cheese crates and butter boxes at a cheaper rate. For a few years it did this, but now it had grown into a timber company, formed part of the Sawmillers* Association, and dairy companies hadhad offers, from private sources, for boxes and crates at a cheaper rate than the Box Company was supplying them at; The Ohainr"\n-: The Box Company formed 5 0 par t of the Sawmiiiers' Association.. . Mr Corrigan: You are federated witn the Sawmillers! -i~ The Chairman: I say we are not. Mr Corrigan: You are combined td* gether and quote the same prices 1 Tlie Chairman: We are not. You are talking about something you know nothing at ail about. I admit that we . keep as near their prices as we can. Mr Corrigan: This is the first time I have ever been able to get any information on this matter. The Chairman: Then why don't yow attend the Box Company's- annual meeting. I have always wanted you to do so. Mr Corrigan: If I showed you a circular which showed that the. Box Company was federated with the Sawmillers' Association would you be satisfied? The Chairman: Have you got it here? Mr Corrigan: No. I have not. I did not think "it would be required or I would have brought it. You have not joined the Sawmillers' .\ssociation? The Chairman: No. Mr Corrigan: You don't put out price lists with them? The Chairman: No. Mr Corrigan: Are not yours the same prices as the Sawmillers' Association? The Chairman: I will not 6wear to* that. Mr Corrigan: I will. The Chairman •. I say we keep as near as we can, but we are quite free and do quote our own prices. Mr Corrigan, continuing his remarks, said the present Box Company had grown into a huge concern, and they did not know where it was gome te end. and he could no:t find out. When the Box Company purchased the Ohutu bush they were told that there was 25-------years' supply of timber there, but now the Company had bought up another bisr block, put in railways, and what "not. He maintained that if the Box Company had been run on business lines it should now stand on its own bottom: they should not keep on loading fresh shares on to the dairy companies every few years. They neverknew where it was going to end. The last call meant one-third additional to their shareholding, and they did not know if even that was going to be theend of it. The Box Company was now really a Jarge sawmilling institution run by. farmers 'who have no more idea* of sawmilling than I have, and that is

very little," said Mr Corrigan. "It is *© use them saying they are not federated,, because their prices are the same. The Chairman: ' 'Are you game to put up a tenner oh that matter?" Mr Corrigan: "Yes " The Chairman: "Very well, then, I will make it 20 to your 10. (The -Chairman then proceeded to deposit tea amount.) Mr Corrigan: "You need not bother to do that now, Mr Chairman. If we want to- make bets -we can do so out--«de." __ After the atmosphere had cleared a little the Chairman went on to explain that the estimate that the Ohutu bush would last 25 years was based on the TOQuirements of the original shareIwulxng factories; since then many other companies had come in, and outjputs generally had enormously increased. If the Box Company had decided to wind up as soon as the Ohutu bush was cut out they would have had £12,000 to £15,000 to divide; that would have been very nice, no doubt, Irafc there would have been no butter Iwxes afterwards. Mr Corrigan: Why not? The Chairman: Where would youwet them from? At Kakahi the Box Company now had a huge timber block —sufficient to. keep all the factories supplied for the next 40 or 50 years; aad I don't see what difference it makes to this company increasing our . Aareholding in the Box Company, seeing that they pay us 6 yer cent for our money, and we get it from the iank for 5£ per cent. Don't you think that is good business? . Mr Corrigan: No. I say it is not. Continuing, the Chairman argued that shareholders twenty years hence in the Box Company were going to reap a rich harvest, and these were the people who would bear the responsibility of the shares.^Other timber companies might quote'-wss:es a penny less than the Box Comply because their outlet for white pine was so restricted, but how much more would the dairy factories have had to pay for their boxes and crates had not the Box Company been in existence? The whole of the timber mills had asked the Box -Company meeting after meeting to xaise the price of boxes 2d or 3d, but the directors had declined to do 60. Mr Corrigan: You say that meeting -after meeting the sawmillers approached you to put up the price of timber? The Chairman: No, boxes. Mr Corrigan: Well, boxes. You say tbat meeting after meeting they approached you. What would they be doing there if they were not federated with you? The Chairman: I have already offerid to put up £20 to your £10 to prove that your, statements about this federation are entirely wrong.. I say you Jknow nothing at all about it. Mr F. Mills pointed out that if tHratu bush would have provided 25 years' cutting for the original factories, but that to supply all present requirements it would be cut out in itoree years meant, speaking in round figures, that the factories now afllUated required eight times the output. The Chairman: There are other factories coming in. Mr Mills, continuing, argued that on Uie^ old basis if the Box Company's capital was sufficient to have enabled the Ohutu bush to have supplied the then shareholding factories for 25 years, but the .increased requirements of these factories, plus the requirements of the factories which had since Joined the Box Company, had necessitated the output of timber being increased eight times more than the original estimated, did it not follow that the Box Company's capital automatically increased eight times? The Chairman: Not necessarily. The Box Company was now running two concerns—one" at Ohutu and one *t Kakahi. At the latter place they had a block of bush which they reckoned would last 50 years if all the factories in Taranaki came in. but they "must have capital to work it. Mr Corrigan contended that if they made their calculations in regard to the new bush in the same way that they had done in regard to Ohutu they would find it would not be more than 25 or 30 years' cutting. Mr A. Campbell brought an acrimonious discussion to an end by remarking that the Hawera Dairy Co. had a great deal to be thankful for. Had not the Egmont Box Company started they would have had to J»y a great deal bigger price for their ijoxes and crates than they were paying to-day. (Hear, hear.) PROXY VOTING. Mr Pierce moved the formal resolu' tion, of which he and Mr Barkla had given notice, to abolish the right to vote by proxy.—ln reply to Mr Mills «s to such a resolution being ultra vires tmder common law rights, the secretary «aid that the resolution was drawn up by the company's solicitors, who were of opinion that such a resolution, if passed by a three-fourths majority, would be quite in order. This opinion agreed with a legal opinion obtained by the Normanby Dairy Company on the same subject.—The chairman 'considered that if proxy voting were done a^ay with, it would be the best thing the Hawera Dairy Company had ever done.—Mr Anstis thought'there was something of the Kaiser about this proposition—no respect for a piece of paper.—After some discussion the resolution was negatived by 261 to 197 vote*. ELECTION OF DIRECTORS. The retiring directors, Messrs Spratt, Kavanagh, Corrigan and Death, offered themselves for re-election. Messrs Dunlop and lludkin were also nominated. A poll was taken and resulted a« follows.—Kavanagh 313, Spratt 296, Corrigan 285, Dunlop 280, Death 202 -Eudkm 177. The first four were de^ clared duly elected. GENERAL. In reply to a question as to what ettect, if any, the honors won by the Hawera Dairy Company at various competitions would have upon the company s produce at Home, Mr Buckerldge, whose firm in London handled the •company's output, said it had already had an appreciable effect. In addition to the public recognition of the honors won by Mr Dunlop, the company's manager, there was the silent recognition of the high class quality of their produce in the prices it had realised during the past four or five years. Those prices had placed the Hawera Company at the head of all the factories in the district which sent their produce Home on open consignment. &o tar as the prospecte for next year were concerned, they were better than they were at this time last year. The i provision for boats was slightly better and whilst they could not expect such high figures as were reached last year there were' indications that the average prices would be somewhere about the same as last year's average He would like to say that in. Mr Dunlop the company had a most capable mana®ir;rJh?.H ad not >vet met hi« <*iuai -and the high quality cheese produced by the Hawera Company told its tale on tne London market. The chairman was voted an honorarium of 100 guineas, and the'directors were voted an allowance of 15s for caen meeting. The meeting recommended the direc- I tors to consider the question of herd- I testing, but it was pointed out that I »„^L H' /■ Lcnnon * ras re-elected j £fo£. a r emunei,ati<m of ten