THE WESTPORT COAL COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3382, 8 January 1919, Page 22

THE WESTPORT COAL COMPANY.

MR JOACHIM'S ASSOCIATION WITH

Mr George Joachim, managing director of the Westport Coal Company, was absent, through ill-health, from the annual meeting of the company when it was recently held. This was the first occasion on which during his connection with the company Mr Joachim was absent from the annual meeting. Mr G. L. Denniston, who occupied the chair, took the opportunity to make appreciative allusion to Mr Joachim's association with the company. In the course of his speech, referring to the year as an eventful one from the domestic point of view, he said: Those of you who have attended previous annual meetings will recall the dignified and genial presence of Sir Henry Miller, who was our chairman for a long period of years. Sir Henry passed away during the year, dying quietly in his sleep at the ripe age of almost 89 years. He was a loyal and faithful servant to this company, and helped it greatly during its earlier and trying years. He was succeeded as chairman by Mr Joachim, to whom my reference must be a little fuller, and the only mitigation of my regret at his absence to-day is the fact that I can speak of him in terms I might hesitate to use in his presence, as he is in very truth a modest man. Mr Joachim took up the .management of this business in the year 1886, and has consequently been at the head of affairs for 32 years. The company was then anything but flourishing—its shares -were low in the market and its prospects gloomy. My wish to-day is to impress on shareholders what I am sure they do not all fully realisehow much the present prosperity of toe company it due- to the management of Mr Joachim. I speak as one who has worked with him and watched his methods for 20 years, and I unhesitatingly assert that he has managed this company with conspicuous ability and success. He was at first designated manager, then general manager, and finally managing director. Mr Joachim possesses one of the secrets of success in. his faculty of choosing able men to work under him, and I can truthfully say that no company has had in its service a better staff of officers than the Wesport Coal Company. He has the faculty, also, of fttracting the respeot and affection of those under him in a remarkable measure, as was proved when, on the completion of 25 years' service, his.silver wedding (so to speak) with the company, the whole stall ;~m- f i ft) aiving him a very handsome token of their affection alnd respect. Mr Joachim vet has another gift of successful management—viz., the faculty of choosing understudies for the more important posts in the service. I instance the now general manager, Mr Flavell, to whom the board has looked for some years as the probable successor to Mr Joachim; and there are other posts where the same policy has been pursued with success. At the present time, when our coal is so universally valued and approved, it is difficult to make shareholders understand how different things were in the earlier years of Mr Joachim's management It was verv difficult to find a market for Westport coal, either for domestic or shipping purposes. Among other objections ir- was said it wag too fieroe for domestic grates, it burned the bars of steamers' furnaces, etc., and the general manager and his board Fad an anxious and strenuous task in trying to find foreign markets for cur coal, sending cargoes to California, China, and the Straits Settlements etc, in tho endeavour to find a foreign outlet. I reed not tell you that now the difficulty is, not' to find markets, but to find enough r-oal to supply our customers. The suggestion to provide our own shipping to someextent came also from Mr Joachim, and this policy has been highlv successful. As a final word, I may say that the Westport Coal Comnanv has been Mr Joachim s life work, and object of these remarks has been to bring this fact home to shareholders at this appropriate moment. lam glad to think that," while Mr Joachim has left the bridge, he is still, as chairman of directors, in a measure at.the helm; and I speak lor myself and my co-directors when I say we hope to have the benefit of his wisdom and experience for some years to come.