UNITED STARR-BOWKETT BUILDING SOCIETY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3005, 18 October 1911, Page 9

UNITED STARR-BOWKETT BUILDING SOCIETY.

TWELFTH ANNUAL MEET>NTt. The annual meeting of the United StarrBowkett Building Society was held in the Stock Exchange Buildings on the 4th. Mr E. A. Rosevear (chairman of directors) occupied tie ohair, and there were seme 30 shareholders present. In movii-flr the adoption of the report and balance eheet, the Chairman 6aid it must be as gratifying to the shareholders to receive as it was to the directors to present a statement of accounts so satisfactory as was shown in the balance sheet. Shareholders would observe that the amount to the credit of the profit and lose account in No. 1 group was £6953 4s 6d—*n increase on the previous year of £298 3s 9d —• while in No. 2 group the credit was £I7BO 10s—an increase on the previous year of £735 2s 1. The subscriptions withdrawn during the year in the No. 1 group totalled £406 16s sd, as compared with a sum of £1279 Is 8d for the previous year. The share Let. in No. 1 group comprised 853 shares, of which 420 shares, representing 85 clusters, were* unappropriated. During the year the obligations of 27 shareholders had been fulfilled, subscriptions transferred to repayments 5, and withdrawn 22 shares —a total of 54 shares. They would understand that this meant a profit to the remaining shareholders, as those shareholders who had withdrawn had forfeited all right to participate in the profits. There were 1023 shares in the No. 2 group, an increase during the year of 164, and 25 loans had been granted in this group, embracing £8 shares. Their society had advanced in loans in the No. 1 and 2 groups no lees a sum than £BO,OO0 —(applause)—and if they added this amount to the sums disbursed; by other similar societies, he (the chair man) considered something like* half a million pounds had been loaned out to the various shareholders. There were fully 2000 people in the city who hd thus been enabled to become possessed o£ their homes who would otherwise not have been able to do so, and over 320 shareholders in their own .particular society who had been put in the waybf becoming freeholders. Their sooiety '.had hot made one penny of bad debt since its inception.—(Applause.) The speaker referred to the advantages of StarrBowkett Societies, likening them to" compulsory savings banks, and said their rules only permitted 12 months now in which new shareholders could come into No. 2 group and participate in all the benefitsHe asked shareholders to do their best to get others to become subscribers to this group. Continuing, the Chairman said the value of each share in No 1 group at the time of the present balance sheet was about £8 6s. He drew their attention to the fact that in No. 1 group the total amount realised by premiums to date was £6517 2s 2d; whereas the amount to credit of profit and loss stood at £6953 14s 6d, proving that the management and working expenses bad been more than met by over £4OO, with the levies and interest accrued. This' was very gratifying to the directors, who could not be accused of throwing money away carelessly. Their ballots and sales in both groups had been an increase on the previous year. The business of the society was increasing as the years went by, and there were no fewer than 24 meeting of. directors during the past year—an average of two a month. The Chairman concluded' by paying a tribute to the work done by their secretary (Mr H. Mitchell) and his staff, by tbeJr valuator Mr Simpson, and also by the auditors, who, made quarterly examinations of the books . and drew up reports.—(Applause.) Mr Jl' Barber seconded the adoption of the .report and balance sheet, which was carried.

The retiring directors—Messrs E. A. Rosevear and John Gray—were re-elected, as were also the retiring aud.tors, Messrs George Blyth and John Mitchell. It was decided to inorea&e the remuneration of the directors to £IOO, and that of the auditors to £4O.

■The 136th appropriation of £SOO by ballot in No. 1 group was drawn by cluster No. 50, held by one shareholder with five shares, while the 136th appropriation by sale was disposed of as follows: —£200 at £7 per hundred, and the remaining £3OO at £6 i per hundred. Four hundred pounds of the twenty-third appropriation in No. 2 group was, after keen bidding, sold at £4O 10s per hundred, the remaining £IOO fetching £l6. A vote of thanks to the directors, the secretary, and the other officials concluded the • meeting.