ELECTRIC GOLD DREDGING COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2690, 4 October 1905, Page 29

ELECTRIC GOLD DREDGING COMPANY.

The following report for the year ended August 31 will be presented to shareholders in the Electric Gold Dredging Company at the sixth annual general meeting: —

" The directors are gratified a-t being able to submit to the shareholders a balance sheet showing for the sixth year of the company's exisience. very satis'iactory results. The gold obtained during the year by the two dredges as cleaned on board amounted to 8381oz 4dwt. This was realised by smelting and assay, and produced £32,398 3s 6d. On the dredge weights the price flius returned was £3 17s 3|d per oz. Tl^6 profit and loss account opened with a ciedit balance of £3712 18s Id, and the net profit for the year (including interest on deposits) amounted to £23,582 4s od, making a total of £27.595 2s 6d. Of this sum there has been distributed as dividends £27,300, leaving a balance to be carried forward of £295 2s 6d. No additions have been made to reserve account, which stands at £2000, as shown in the previous balance sheet. It will be 1111 del stood, however, that this amount has been maintained in a liquid 9tate, being included in the deposits at interest, and therefore available for any emergency. With this amount available the directors felt free to divide the profits close up as the returns came in. The funds in hand and available represent the reserve, the balance of profit and loss account, and the liabilities to be met. Up to the date of last balance sheet the total realisations of gold returns for five years pioduced £117.5*2 5s sfl. to which the rehmis during last year have added £32,398 3s Gd. making in all for six years £149,960 8s lid. During the same periods the dividends paid to shareholder? have been— -to August 31, 100-i, £3 2s 6d per share, £81,250, and for 12 months to August 31, 1903, £1 Is per share. £27.300; total, £i 3s 6d per share, or £108 550. Since closing the accounts, and up to the date of this repoit, September 27, 1905, additional gold returns of 9300z have bsen obtained, and a further dividend has been paid amoi'nting to 2s 6d per share, absorbing £3250. These will appear in tlie accounts for next year. The aggregate expenditure of last year amounted to £8635 7s 4d, and, comparing this with the previous year's £7893 Is lOd, there is an inciease of £742 5s 6d. This includes an increase in insurance of £96 12s, and an increase in repairs, etc., of £697 2s, totalling £793 14s. The other items, iJierefore, show a decrease of £51 8s 6d.

Tiie insurance covers two dredges instead of one, and the additional repairs include a number of duplicate parts added during the year to provide "against breakages, but not reckoned as stock in closing 'the accounts. No. 1 diedge is still working iip from the bottom of the claim, and has had returns for 36 weeks during the year. She is now on block CXXIII. During the last few weeks (pievious to August 31) the returns were not so good as was expected, this being due to a clay bank crossing the liver diagonally, l'he dredge has now worked through part of this bar, and the returns have improved considerably. For the week ending September 22, 1905, the gold won was 3660z 15dwt, and as we increase the cut clear of this bar, they should still lurther improve. No. 2 dredge has given a return for 31 weeks, and is now winnhig impioved returns with good prospects. The heavy nature of both these claims will account for the heavy expenditure in working, but the shareholders are to be congratulated on the year's results. A good deal of the. success is due to the company's dredgemasters — viz., Mr W. M. Orr, of the No. 1, and Mr Andrew Hedley, of the No. 2 dredge. Mr G-. C. Troy, who was in charge of the No. 1 dredge last year, and who won .the record return of 12730z 3dwt for five days' working, resigned his position, having received and accepted an offer of a remunerative position in Prtagonia, South America. Your directors see no reason why the returns should not keep the same average for the ensuing year, and as very little snow has fallen this winter it is expected that the season for dredging will last at least up to Christmas, when both dredges will close down for the annual overhaul to be in readiness to resume dredging about the first week in February, 1906."

In the above report the company is mentioned as having taken gold out of its claim (Turing the six years of its existence to the value of £149,960" 8s lid. This does not, however, cover all the wealth taken out of this famous claim, as for four or five years prior to the company being formed the ground was worked by a syndicate with, we understand, great success.