Waikouaiti Dairy Company.

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 38

Waikouaiti Dairy Company.

The unnual meowing of shareholders in the W?iknu-nti Dairy Factory Company was hold on Satu.clay, about s!>rireholderc being presenl. lopresenting bbl shares. Mr Li. Mill (chairman of director.) presided. The report ptated : — Yctit directors have much pleasure in stating thai; the last season's operaho is v/ere the most satlsfoctoiy the. comoan;/ have experienced so iar. ilera milk ivas received and more cheese maiufactuic:l than during any previous season, the figures being:— Milk, 2,410,2311b; butter f-it, 93,90 1 ib; cheese made, 017,2311b, or over 110 tons: highest number of suppliers. 48. The average percentage of butter fat varied fiom 3 6 m November up to 4.4 in May. The price paid supplier*, was 9d vex 1b of butter fat from opening up to end of March, and 10d from Ist Anril till end of season. Calculating lllb of milk to the gallon, 219,1"17 gal wore received, and the average price paid per gallon was just a shade undei 4d, this being the best price ever paid by the company. Ah will be seen by the accompanying balance sheet, the piofit on the year's transactions amounts to £361 16s 7d, which the directors recoxprneijc"! to be applied as follows — viz., J.d per pound of butter fat r<s a bonus to all milk suppliers of past season; a dividend cif 7J y>er cent, to "barcholdcis; and a sufficient sum to be added to the leserve fund so as to enable the directors to refu.id 10s per share to shareholders, thereby leducing th,e capital of the company by one half. Altogether this will absorb about £310 of Ihe surplus of piofit.

Owing to failing health the manager apnlied to navo his sou, Mr William Graham, associated with him m the working of the factory, which tbc directors agreed to, thinking it vrould bo to the besi interest of the company to retnin Mr F. Ij. Graham's connection with the factory as Jong as possible. They here take the opporLunity of thinking him for the vpry efneieut manner he has discharged his duties in the pa<?t.

The balance sheet showed that the assets exceeded the liabilities W 5763 Os 7d. The cheese sales totalled .54?43 8s Bd.

Ihe 'C'i airman, in moving the adoption of the roTiorl and balance sheet, pointed otit that it was V c quantity put through that told. Some factories in the North Tslaid recognised this, and were basing the price paid for" milk ■pro rat a on the ma^nUude of Buonly. thu'f itulueino- snppliers to patronise the larger factories at, perhaps, some inconvenience to Ihfmselvcf. A* they had the largest faetorr in t'^e district, l-o wished tl'p sup^lieivs would ba?r this in n md .Tnd help to irceape the supply T>-c output had been double tkit of the previous year. The quantily of rrilk to ir">Vo a pound of bu+tei- fat was 25.851b : to make a Tiound of cbce^o Q^l'j — i pound of fat prodrciatr 2 621b of cheese. TTp hoped the shareholders hal irivea caveftil attention to the oucstiin of red"ping- the capitnl. as by les-^niusr the value of the slim-es they would be more ensilv rrken up by milk puunliers, who ought to have the company entirely in their own hands. At present the greater part of

the shares were held by non-suppliers, and tlria was not advisable in an affair like theirs. Mr C4eorge Gilmore seconded the~adoptio'n of the report, and strongly objected to the.clause relating to reducing the capital. It was agreed to delete it and consider if; afterwards. The report and balance sheet were then adopted. Messrs John Malloch i>nd Neil Stewart were elected directors. The question" of the reduction of capital was then proceeded with^on the motion of Mr Malloch. seconded by Mr Bray, and, after a very vigorous discussion, a poll was taken, which resulted as follows : For the proposal, voters 24, representing 44-0 shares; against, V 7 votes, or 120 shares. The Chairman declared tho proposal carried. Mr Malloch then suggested that the rnilksupplying shareholders hold a meeting amongst themselves to see if they could not buy out the non-suppliers, and so have the management in their own hands. He and others wera quite willing to sell out at any time. Vote* ot ihnnks to tho directors, Me Mill (cli airman), Mr Graham (manager), and Mr i)»vis (secretary) brought p most interesting meeting to a close.

The Lyne Ministry completed its first year "of office in New South Wales on Friday, September 14. Bix new Roman Catholic priests are expected from Ireland enrly in October to fill vacant parishes in the Ballarat diocese. His Excellency the Governor has appointed Mi\ Andrew M'Dougall to be a ranger of Crown lands for the land district of Otago. Private information received "from Awakiiio is to the effect (says the Taranaki Herald) that prospecting for gold has been oariied out vigorously for some time, but so far 'ue results cannot be called satisfactory. " Billiards and the lotalisator seem to ruin halt the young: men.'' remarked his Honor Mr Justice Conolly during the hearing of a case in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth on "Wednesday. The quantity of sugj>r exported from Queensland during the fortnight, ended September 35 was 8344 tens, and tho total quantity exported thi^ season to date has been 17,940