HARTLEY AND RILEY BEACH DREDGING COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2686, 6 September 1905, Page 26

HARTLEY AND RILEY BEACH DREDGING COMPANY.

The eighth annual meeting of the Hartley and Riley Beach Dredging Company was held in the Board Room of the Agricultural Hall Buildings on Monday, 28th u}t. The Hon. T. Fergus (chairman of directors) presided, and there were about 25 shareholders present. Hie Chairman, moved the. adoption of. the

: I ieport (already published) and balance sheet i in very lew woids, and, the motion being i , duly seconded, it was carried without disCUOn°tne motion of Mr Jno. Mill, seconded by Mr K. A. Finch, the retiring director (Messrs A. J. Shaw ond R. T. Wheeler) were re-elected, and Mr A. G. Fenwick was reelected auditor. . „ At the close of the meeting an extraordinary meeting of shareholders was held, when the following resolution was submitted :-- "That the articles of association bs altered as follows: (1) Article No. 37 shall be cancelled- (2) the following article shall be inserted in lieu of the said article 37—namely, ' Tho quorum for a general meeting shall be seven members personally present; no business shall be transacted at any general meeting unless the requisite quorum be present at the commencement of the business'; (3) the words 'half an hour' shall be substituted for the words ' one hoitr in the first line of article 38."—The resolution was passed, and a meeting will be held later, on a date to be fixed, to confirm the same. *MOKOIA GOLD DREDGING COMPANY. The sixth annual meeting of shareholders in the Mokoia Gold Dredging Company was held at the S+cck Exchange on the 29th ult., Mr J. C. Short (chairman jf directors) presiding, and there being nine or 10 shareholders present. Mr Short, m moving the adoption of the report and balance sheet, said he did not know that thero was anything he could add j to what appeared in the report. There was, however, one matter he would like to touch upon. The claim they originally held had j been worked out. The first cut on the south . ! side of the river had, particular'y in portions, proved to be highly remunerative, and had given shareholders a few dividends. Their then dredgemaster (Mr Crook'ston) had reckoned, and so had the residents; that the gold would run right across the river, and it had been hoped in taking the next cut to be abie to again pay dividends; but, as in many other instances, the gold was not there, and consequently they had had to put up with inferior returns. Just outside where the run was found the ground proved to be of very little value. The dredge was sbiftedT further up to the additional half-mile, of ground that had bean secured by Mr Fenwiok and himself when on the Coast, and they had worked that ground with varying success. Mr Harlow seconded the motion for th© "" tion of the report and balance sheet. j Mr Dail suggested that, in view of the capital being almost exhausted (the secretary mentioned that there was £111 13s 4d after paying all expenses), the dredge might be sod and the affair wound up before they got into debt; that was if the directors saw the claim was not going to pay for working. The dredge was in fairly good condition, and they might find someone ready to buy it. Mr Moss said that at the present rate at which dredges were selling, if the dredge were sold it might return Is per fhare to shareholders. That shilling was not very much of a loss, and there was just a possibility of yet getting good returns. He pointed ouf that other ground might be acquired. The Chairman thought they -were ■warranted in continuing for some littl-e time y«t. Mr Dall said he wa3 quite in favour of that, but there was a stopping point somewhere. Mr Walker pointed out that in the event of a sale the preference shareholders, holding2500 shares, would practically be entitled to everything. For the sake of the ordinary" shareholders he thought the thing should go on as long as- there was a shot in the locker. The motion was then carried. Messrs J. C Short and A. G. Fenwick were re-elected directors, and Mr Jas. Brown auditor. HESSEY'S GOLD DREDGING COMPANY. The annual meeting of shareholders in the j Hessey's Gold Dredging Company was held fit the secretary's office, 102 Princes street, on Wednesday afternoon. The shareholders present weTe Messrs W. D. Houston (chairman), John Hessey (Mastertcn), J. Hessey (Dunedin) W. Binstert, R. Moir, R. H. Stephens, R. Lee, J. Kerr, and Jas. Brown. The Chairman moved the adoption of the report (already published) and balance sheet. From the statements published he said it would be seen that the work of the dredge had been very satisfactory during the past year, although, of course, it had not been bo gooo as during the previous year. During a recent visit to the company's property, although he. could not claim to have special knowledge of mining or mining machinery, he was well satisfied with what he saw, and I their dredgemaster then told him the ground , was good enough to pay dividends eveTy two ! months for some time to come. It would be j observed from the returns that during the past year the company paid 15 per cent, to shareholders, and since the present -year commenced they had already paid 10 per cent. Mr Jas. Brown seconded the motion, and in doing so complimented the secretary on the clear and concise manner m which th« balance sheet was made out. He wished other dredging companies would adopt the same clear methods of placing their accounts before the shareholders. The fact of 3s per chare having been paid in dividends during" last year, under difficult circumstances, and 2a already this year, was very satisfactory indeed, I and he thought the company was fortunate in. I having Mr Hessey's name connected with it— it was a lucky name, and Mr Hessey seemed to be a lucky man, as there was no case where dredging ventures taken up by him had wrong. The report and balance sheet were then unanimously adopted. It was agreed that the nitrnbeT of directors be three, as before, and that the remuneration, be 36 guineas. It was also decided that Mr J. Hessey (of Masterton) be allowed £5 per month towards expenses in attending th 9 meetings a,s hitherto. Mr W D. Houston, who retired by rotation was re-elected to the position of director,' and a«x James Brown was reappointed auditor aft the same fee as last year. In reply to a question from a shareholder the secretary stated that if the returns kept up as they were doing it was probable that at the next monthly meeting of the directors, on the second Friday of next month, the comdSdend "* * positi °n to P ay another