THE MOSGIEL WOOLLEN FACTORY COMPANY (LIMITED).

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9907, 28 November 1893, Page 5

THE MOSGIEL WOOLLEN FACTORY COMPANY (LIMITED).

The annual general meeting of shareholders in this company was held at their offices, High street, on the 14th inst. Mr John Roberts (chairman o;: directors) presided, and the other members of ;fche board present were: The Hon. W. Downie iStewart, M.L.C., Dr Hislop, Messrs H. F. Hardy, B. B. Cargill, and A. J. Burns. There was a good number of other shareholders , also in attendance. The directors' report, which was as follows, was, with the balance sheet, taken as read :— The directors have pleasure in submitting the twentieth annual report and balance sheet of the company. The demand for the company's productions for the past year has been fairly good. The profit and loss account shows a balance of £640617s Id, from which the interim dividend of £2940, paid in April, has to be deducted, leaving ■ the sum of £3466 17s Id now available. The directors recommend the payment of a further i dividend of £2940, making 8 per cent, for the year, and. carrying forward the balance of £52b 17s Id to tlie new profit and loss account. The 1 retiring directors are Mr John Koberts and Mr • A J Burns, both of whom are eligible and offer ■> themselves for re-election. The auditors, Messrs • W. Brown and Co. and Walter Hislop, retire, but i are eligible for re-election. j The Chairman said: Gentlemen, —■ Seeing 1 that we have at the present time entered 3 our twenty-first year of existence, perhaps b I might be allowed to give you a short 3 resume of the early history of the company, > not so far as its operations are concerned, but a so far as concerns, the individuals who have a been associated with vis from the earliest period r of the company's existence. I find that Mr A. s J. Burns, who, as you know, originally started s the Mosgiel mill and sold out to the company, » turned out the first piece of tweed in October s 1871 The prospectus of the present existing c company was issued in August 1873. That c prospectus contained the names of 16 provisional y directors, Of these, four are dead, three have a left the colony, and nine are still in the colony, t I believe; but I regret to say lam the only a survivor here. The first legal board the corns pany had, those who signed the original >. articles of association in 1873, were seven in n number. Of these we have still amongst us '. Mr Cargill and Mr BurHS. Mr Gillies, though 0 not a director, was a prominent actor in the c company at that time. Mr John Cargill is a absent from the colony. Mr Mason, I believe, n is Btillhere. - Mr-Proaser is absent from the 1 colony, and Mr G. F. Keid is dead. These c were the first, legal directors. A permanent d board of directors was appointed on the 9th y December, 1873. They were, including Messrs .s Burns . and Smail (by virtue _of their holdy jng as original vendors), seven in number. Of l- these seven, Mr Cargill, Mr Burns, .and myself ir still survive. So that it is somewhat odd that it although 20 years have elapsed _ sinca that g time three out of seven are still on the is board. Mr Cargill was the first chairit man, and he kept the office for some c- three years. Mr Burns succeeded him,, aud I 1. succeeded Mr Burns. I took office in June ~ 1877, so that I have had the honour of 16 y years' continuous- occupation of the ohair n of the company. I give this short historical <c sketch of the company, as it is of some personal a interest to us to know that some of us have is been closely identified with the coml- pany ever since its initiation. I have is also satisfaction in stating that . since i, the company started thero has been only l- one year in which no dividerid was_ paid. i, There was another year when no dividend » wa3 paid for that particular year, but the folb. lowing year that dividend was made up by b. a dividend being declared for the then te year and the previous yeai\ The avei- rage dividend eince its initiation in 1873 l- has been £8 63 per cent. — 8 3-10 per 3. cent, has been the average dividend during v the 20 years. I will now refer very shortly to ,n the balance sheet which is in your hands, and I ;o will maks a very few remarks by way of explaa nation. If you turn to the balance sheet, on r- the liability sida you will see that loans payable is have'decreased by £200, caused by the repay:d ment of that amount which was standing as a 3, deposit. Bills payable have increased by 3, £1801, caused by the deposit of £2000 having in been taken during the year 'and charged to this i- account, as a promissory note had been it given for it. The outstanding accounts are only d slightly higher. The amount owing to the ,11 Colonial Bank- has been decreased by £1357. I There is an increase of fill 6to the credit of the Sr marine insurance fund account, and it now )r stands at £616, which is a very 'sube- stantial amount to stand between the company ,11 (which runs a considerable portion of the risk t. itself) and loss; so that, should we have lo any ■ exceptional loss by marine disasters, we in have this £610 between the company and loss. a Therefore it is a very good nest egg to have by m us. On the assets side, the Mosgiel plant is ks increased by £539. This has arisen from the sw purchase of additional hosiery machinery. The it- Ashburton plant has been increased to the cc extent of £14. Upon the electric light, wareid house property^ and some other items >Bt we have spent nothing since last year. is. Book debts are virtually the same, showing a ill slight decrease of £161. £56,545.133 Id repreat sents the amount for goods manufactured and to in process and raw material. It seems pdd that er with such a large sum to deal with the difference tie between last year and this is only £45. In ref eris- ence to the profit and loss account, the charges a- account and other accounts have decreased owing lie to various economies effected. The interest acar count has decreased, arising from the cheaper re money we have had during portion of the year, of and the smaller amount of advance we were in under to the bank. The bad debts only amount nt to £63 173 sd, as you will be pleased to oh notice. In reference to the operations of at the past year, as a whole the year ict has not been characterised by any spurt I in trade, and I might almost say there a,U has been a somewhat prevailing dulness he over the year's operations. Trade has not been as so elastic as it has been in past years, and we ay have experienced considerable difficulty in Ige moving off our various products. The cause of ion this is perhaps to be found first of all in the in- general dulness of trade throughout the lot country. In the second place lam inclined to ten think the productive power of the mills now ur- in existence are possibly fully equal to the lie. demand for colonially-manufactured woollen i'of materials; and I ascribe a good deal of the lay prevailing dulness to the popular demand for 3to low-class materialandtheconsequentimporfcaer^ tIC 2?f inferior stuff—caused, no doubt, by the 3— diminfshed-bt 525^2 Power of the people. Our we own position, gentlemen>iiJsJ3iot been the same ,nd as in past years, and the same^roiSg-^pPnes--3 a to people generally whose incomes have lof been curtailed to a considerable extent, jed Diminished spending power naturally prompts ers people, especially the poorer people, rill to seek the cheapest goods they isi- can possibly get, and that has, I believe, to :es, some extent contributed to the dulness in id- trade during the year. Up to the 3rd of the October the mills ran full time, but then the rds directors, after careful consideration, thought the it was inadvisable to keep the three mills !hd going the full time, when we saw that the probe duction of the manufactured article was only jus to result in increased stocks in the wareind houses. We find that if our stocks icre- crease beyond what they reasonably ought lif to be we lay ourselves open, to a very vulnerng, able position ; so much so that the waxehouselds men take immediate advantage of it, and we re- can always deal batter with them when we have eit only little in stock. We find that the less we sed have in stock the less difficult it is to effect we sales. We therefore thought it prudent to disin continue production, so as to prevent an accumd mulatiqn of stock. Since the 3rd of Octobei i a the Mosgiel and Ashburton mills have beer md working short time. The Kaikorai mil! jur has been shut down since the 12tfc lall "October. We do not anticipate this I stoppage will continue for any great length by of time, as we have reasonable assurances ich from our manager that trade is bettering, anc tat- that before many weeks are over we shall b( ace able to resume full working hours. We are nol the exceptional in this respect, as we find that th( ley Wellington people are on short time; anc ach although other mills are complaining of some

,t bard times, I don'fc know whether they: c shub down or are on shorter /hours, but \ cc 13 a general tendency in that direction. a poor satisfaction, of course, but still it is isf actory to know that other companies are ' cli bha same position as ourselves, and that illington has been obliged to follow suit. I.:. l't know that I have very much more to j ntion, except that you will notice that the I -g, jers do not include what has been a very I ge itouaary allowance in our balance sheets — IJ. nely, allowance for depreciation. We have kB: ieavoured from year to year to write off ft -K--000 as beiug a fair allowance for that item; I g ( 11 can assure shareholders that although ttie |jy m "Depreciation" does not appear, the diree- | j rs have taken especial care to see that tha B A ods in process of manufacture and in fcha I l: irehouse have been taken at an extremely ij T oderate value; so that although the, ij * )ra of det)reciation dees not appear in. ij c way it usually does appear, we! ought we should be conserving the interests !! the company b9tter by carefully supervising | ocka to see that they were taken at a very- i oderate value. All our produce ia taken m ats J price which will leave a satisfactory proud ,j S hen realisation comes in the way of selling |J J 1 our customers. I don't know that I,H ivo anything more to say. I have now ij 1 >uohed upon all the points, but should any jj lareholder require any information which it is jj ] i my power to givo, I shall ba most happy to! j, ffiord it. With these remarks, I beg to moves ;| > le adoption of the report and balance sheeu. A - Mr H. F. Hardy : I beg leave to second theij, doption of the report. The chairman has re-'-3 , srred to so many items with regard to the com- <1 any's affairs, that it leaves very little for any--1; ne to say; but thero are one or two items in. I he balance sheet that I might refer to, show- j og the carefulness—l may say the ex- j reme carefulness—with which this company is. \ nanaged. It will, I am sure, have struck you* 1 n every year's balance sheet what a very small-, amount of money there is in bad debts. This, >f course, indicates very careful management in. ibis respect. There is another item on th& )ther side of the balance sheet—namely, transfer fees. Sometimes this amount is under £1 ? this year I observe it is £2 6s 6d. That.' indicates that this is a very conservative company, and that when shares change hands they generally fall into the hands of somebody already in the company. The fact that from the commencement of the company a dividend amounting to more than 8 per cent, has been paid is very satisfactory indeed. This company differs from a good many companies in this respect, but I don't think any of us ever expect any. extremely large dividends; but at any rate we expect—and so far we have always got—a very fair dividend, and one that can be looked forward to with a degree of certainty. That does not apply to a good many other institutions. This question also of marine insurance is very good. It ia really money saved; and if any losses occnr we shall b9 able to stand it. With these few remarks I beg to second the adoption of the report. The motion for the adoption of the report was then put and carried. ■ • ELECTION OP DIRECTORS. < j The Chairman : The next business is the j election of directors. You will find that the j report states that Mr A. J. Burns and myself I are the retiring directors, and ofier ourselves for re-election. Mr J. Mitchell : I have much pleasure In proposing the re-election of Messrs John Roberts and A. J. Burns as directors of the company. In view of the present position of the company, I don't think we can do better than reinstall them in the office they have so long filled. Mr A. Less seoonded the motion, which was ■ carried unanimously. '• ELECTION OF ATTDITORS. The Chairman: The next business is the election of auditors. The retiring auditors are Messrs W. Brown and Co. and Walter Hislop. Any motion for the appointment of auditors will require to have tacked on to it that the remuneration be £25 a' year each. Mr P. G. Prydb moved the appointment of Messrs Alexander Bartleman and W. Hislop, afc the remuneration of £25 a year each.' The motion was seconded by Mr T. Young and carried. VOTES OP THANKS. Mr Melville, in moving a vote of thanks to the directors for their able management of the company, and to the employes, said, considering the amount of depression that there had been throughout the Australasian colonies during the past year, the business done by the company had been very satisfactory indeed. The Yen. Archdeacon Fenton seconded the motion, which was agreed to. The Chairman returned thanks on behalf of the directors, and Mr J. H. Morrison on behalf of the employes.