WESTPORT COAL COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 9

WESTPORT COAL COMPANY.

The eighteenth annual meeting of the shareholders of the Westport Coal Company was held in the company's office, Crawford street, on the 14th inst. The Hon. H. J. Miller (the chairman of directors) presided, and about thirty gentlemen were present.

The directors' report (already published) recommended the payment of a dividend at the xate of 4£ per cent, for the half-year ending 31st December last, making, with the interim dividend of 3 per cent, for the previous halfyear, l\ per cent, for the year ; to carry to reserve fund £2500; and to carry forward to next year's account £64-52 3s lid. The Chairman said : The report and balance sheet have been in your possession for some days, and with your permission we will take them as read. In reviewing the items in the balance sheet you will notice that the amount of works, leases, and plant is increased by £12,238. This expenditure was absolutely necessary in consequence ot the large demand for coal. The output for the year was 327,000 tons, an increase of 47,000 tons on the output of lE9B. We were consequently obliged to increase our machinery and to purohase two hulks — one for Auckland and one for Lyttelton — to cope with the increased trade. These two hulks afford an" additional storage of 3000 tons. Machinery for screening the coal has been ■erected at Lyttelton so as to deliver screened or- unscreened coal into the railway trucks, according to the requirements of the merchants. This operation, which was suggested by* our Christchurch agent, Mr Thomas Brown, and designed and carried out by our late lamented district manager, has been attended with much benefit to all concerned. Our liabilities are increased by £16,000, but, on the other hand, owing to increased trade, our assets, in the shape of outstanding accounts, are also largely increased. These outstanding accounts are all quite good, and most of them have since been paid. The profit for the year shows an increase of £1100. It is small for the largely increased trade, but we have had to spend a large amount on development at Granity Creek, and I trust we shall reap the benefit of it during the present year. The demand for coal is greater this year than we have ever experienced in the history of the company, and it will tax our resources to the utmost to cope with it. The outlook is therefore hopeful, and I trust our profits will this year be commensurate with the increased trade. You will see that we propose to increase the dividend to 7}> per cent. The Granity Creek colliery is turning out equal to expectations, and I am pleased to say the Admiralty, after careful tests of the coal, have decided to draw the whole of their requirements from that colliery. Our export trade has not increased, but this is partly from our inability to supply the coal and partly from scarcity of ships. This year I hope we shall be able to do more. We have supplied a cargo in the present month to the United States Government for Pango Pango, and we have good prospects of supplying other foreign markets if we can put out the coal. The mines have been kept in. a most efficient state, and our new machinery is working quite up to expectations. It, is of the , most improved pattern, and embraces all 'the latest improvements. A new wh.arf has just been' completed at Westport, and as soon as sufficient rolling stock is available we shall begin to ship our household coal by means of cranes instead of by the present method of shoots. It is expected that this method of loading the coal will prevent the breakage which has hitherto done so much to damage it. Shareholders are no doubt aware that the company have sustained a very great loss by the death of their district manager, Mr Thomas Brown. His complete devotion to the interests of the company, his great ability and thorough integrity of character, make it difficult to supply his loss. He had a knowledge of all matters connected with coal such as few men possess, and his inventive faculty was of a high order. Many ingenious machines now working on the company's premises which have proved to be most useful and economical, were invented by him. It has been the good fortune of our present managers — Messrs Lindop and Dixon — to have been associated with him for a considerable period, thereby deriving much benefit from his knowledge and experience. Directors have full confidence in placing them in charge of their respective collieries. I beg to move the adoption of the report and balance sheet.

Mr John Mill: I have great pleasure in seconding the adoption of the report and balance sheet, and I might be permitted to say one or two words in favour of it. As one who has had a good deal to do with mining matters during my colonial experience, I think that the report that has been read here to-day will give every shareholder every satisfaction, inasmuch as the directors have given a little increase in the dividend. For my own part, I should like very much po have seen the dividend a little more, .or "that the generosity of the directors had gone a little " further, and given us a little of the reduced capital ; but we live in hopes of getting -that. lam qxiite satisfied that the company are in a position to pay the divi.dend they are about to pay. I regret very much the taking away of a' gentleman like Mr Brown. He has been one among a thousand who has given his time and attention to the general welfare of the company, and he deserves to be very feelingly mentioned here to-day. — (Hear, hear.) We could ill offord to lose the services of such a man, and I regret his loss very much. I think the directors have difficulties to contend with. You, Mr Chairman, have shown that you are not able to cope with the trade required of you now. That is a very good sign indeed. I hope the day is not far distant when you will be able to extend your export trade, which will be the backbone of this company yet. You have got the coal, and the right men to manage the mine. Therefore I trust that the day is not far distant when prosperity will come to £his company in a greater measure than before. I have very much pleasure in seconding the adoption of the report.

Tht> Chairman : I would like to oxprp» c my entire concurrence with all that Mr ]\HIJ has said with regard to our manager. I have already referred to him in terms which I am sure everybody who knew him will thoroughly endorse. Mr Mill is perfectly justified in savins; that Mr Brown was a man in a thousand. I think he might have said a man in a great xn.iny thousands, for I have never met a man who impre.-s-Bd me with commanding ability more than M- Brown did. His power of digesting all difficult --.übjcol-s and book'j wan most remarkable: smci, ib I have staled, hf had an inventive faculty not only "of a very liigh character, but of a very practical character. Nothing that he has ever conceived lias ever failed; but it ha-, riaht awij done Ih ;work for vrhioh it was dcM^ned. A 1 lor ih< remarks of Mr Mill about t he o-:poit trade I have already explained t've re mi \,'i>" .hu .trade has not increa t-ft -f d ; but 1 cjime .uri'ii Hvith liirn, and have a 1 ! through thought Mv.t Kaujj ©jujort trade would bo ono oi' our *)riiv

cipal resources. I have no doubt that as noon as the trade becomes a\ailable we shall be able to cope with it. Mr W. Wright proposed, and Mr J. Wright seconded, the re-election of Messrs Keith Ramsay and A. Bartleman as directors, and the motion Mas carried without dissent.

On the motion of Mr J. Mills, seconded by Mr E. Campbell, Messrs Waller Bislop and Thomas Callender were re appointed auditors for the conrpany.

Mr W. L. Simpson proposed a vote of thanks to the directors, mine managers, and officers of the company for the conduct of the mine during the last 12 months. The result of the year was good, and he believed the results would be still better in the future. He hoped that if the British navy came more into this quarter of the globe, as they were very likely to do, the company would be far more largely patronised by them, and that he thought would be the case at no far distant date. He hoped the mine managers would prove efficient, but he did not think it would be reasonable to expect them to be equal to the late manager, who had been a man of exceptional ability.

The motion was carried imanimously. The Chairman said : lam going to ask the general manager this year to return thanks for the officers. On behalf of the directors I beg to return thanks to the meeting for the complimentary way in which they have been referred to. I may say I think the year has been satisfactory, and that this is especially so as far as the output is concerned. That of course has been up to expectations. The big fault through which we have been working towards Mine Creek has caused a somewhat severe tax upon our patience. In the year 1898 the main heading was pushed 20 chains through that fault, and this year it has been carried 22 chains further. Besides that, there have been eight chains from the surface to the main heading for ventilation and other purposes. That has been a very long, a very difficult, and a very expensive work, but we have now reached the coal. We have got to this Mine Creek, which is the place where it was originally intended to take the incline. It was the idea of Mr Waters, our engineer at the time, to take the incline right up to this point, which I am now referring to. Our late manager, Mr Brown, pointed out that we need not take the incline so far, and fortunately his advice was followed, thereby saving the company many thousands of pounds. That was one of the advantages this company reaped from having such a very capable man as Mr Brown as their mine manager. Marketable coal is now being obtained from Mine Creek, and the plant which is necessary for working the field is partly erected. Of course this work is somewhat expensive, and it will take probably some four or five months before it is completed, but then we shall have this large area available, and I hope we shall be able to meet the demand for the coal which is now pressing somewhat heavily upon the company. With regard to what Mr Simpson said about Admiralty coal, I was very pleased to hear his remarks, because I think, if my memory serves me right, he said last year that he did not think there was much in it. This year he expresses a different opinion. I have always thought there was a good deal in it. At the same time it has not yet been anything extraordinary. The_ Admiralty have taken up to the present time about 20,000 tons, but I agree with Mr Simpson, and have no doubt they will take a great deal more as time goes on. I ought to say that amongFt other increased facilities for meeting the greater demand for coal, we have the eightton waggons which the Government have built for running on the Denniston incline. They have not been running yet, but a good many of them have been made, and are ready to start as soon as the line is fit for them. These will enable the Denniston output to be increased, so that if the Mine Creek plant and machinery is ready in four or five months, we ought this year to be getting up to something like our proper limit of output. With these remarks I beg to thank you for what you have said aboiit the directors, and I will ask Mr Joachim to return thanks for the officers.

Mr Joachim (the general manager) said: On behalf of the staff I beg to thank you sincerely for the vote of thanks given to them. No man is insensible to praise, and I am sure it will be very gratifying to all the company's officers, as it is to me, to find that shareholders appreciate our efforts. I am proud of our staff, as I know that each officer works as readily for the company and takes as much interest in its affairs as if the business were his own. It speaks volumes for our branch managers when I say that the turnover for the year was a quarter of a million, and that bad debts only amounted to £33, and our accounts are numbered not by hundreds, but by thousand?. Just one word about my dear friend, Mr Brown, who has, alas ! been taken from us. When I took charge of the company's affairs some thirteen years ago I very soon found that we had in him a man not only of exceptionally high character, but of extraordinary and practical ability, and I think my discovery of him, as it were, and my bringing him specially under the notice of the directors, was one of the best things I have ever done for the company. Shoulder to shoulder we have worked for the advancement of the company, and during the whole time there never was an unpleasant word passed between us. His great desire Avas to live to see the output reach half a million tons per annum, and, going on as we now are, it will not take many years to accomplish it. To show you what has been done during those thirteen years, permit me to road a short paragraph from a recent report of Mr Brown's: — " Thirteen years ago," he says, " it appeared a most hopeless task to keep the concern afloat for eve'i one year, everything -"'as run down to the lowest possible limit, costly breakages were of frequent occurrence, the machinery was hopelessly out of repair, and far too light for the heavy work required ; the mine development was in the most backward condition, stores we had none, and on the whole it was just about as gloomy an outlook as anyone could ever bo called upon to face. To-day there is not a better found or more up-10-dalo concern anywhere." The truth nf this last statement mny pa&ilv bo verified by referring to last year's Minei' "Report or to the "Colliery Guardian" of Spptcmber 29, 1899. where the works are described by an English expert. This concluded the business.