THE BRUCE WOOLLEN COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3499, 5 April 1921, Page 25

THE BRUCE WOOLLEN COMPANY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —My attention has been called, although only lecently, to a note in your columns stating, in reference to a former letter of mine on the subject, that the balance sheet of the Bruce Woollen Company for 1920 had been published in the Bruce Herald on October 25 last. I regret that before writing my former letter I did not make myself acquainted with all the facts of the case, and if I have done anyone an injustice thereby they have my apology. The publication, however, of the balance sheet in an earlier issue than the one to which I referred alters very little my contention that the published report of the annual meeting of shareholders was not such as the importance of the occasion demanded. No figures were quoted, and no remarks of the chairman were given. It seems to me that probably they were most interesting, as the figures I give later- on ! would supply suitable material for hearty j congratulations to the shareholders on the year’s operations. As these figures, I believe I am safe in saying, have not previously appeared in your columns, they will be instructive to those who read. To show more fully the success of the company in IS2O, I give a few figures from the directors’ report in 1919. That report shewed 'hat £15,295 was carried forward from the previous year, and that the profit for the year was £10,472—-a total of £25 767. After the payment to shareholders of a. 12 per cent, dividend and the transference of various sums to certain reserves, a balance of £14,767 was carried forward. For the year 1920 the directors’ report shows a credit balance of £19,295 11s 7d. from which they recommend the payment 1 of a dividend and bonus of 12 per cent, to I shareholders, the transference of certain I amounts to various reserves, and the carryI ing forward of £4293 to the present year, j From the figures in these two reports it 1 would seem as if the company had not been so successful in 1920 as in 1919. But let me give a few figures from the profit and loss appropriation account: To income tax £ 4,037 By balance ... £l-1,707 Hcserve for in- Profit lor year come tax ... 10.000 above ... 24,363 ; Balance 10,293 Total £30,330 Total £30,330 i .From these figures we learn that in 1919 1 the profit was only £10,472, while for last j year it had risen to £24,563, a.nd yet no ? remarks of the chairman were deemed worthy of publication in the local paper. I would like the management of the com- ; pany to show that- the profit for last year ’ was not more than a fair and reasonable 1 one on a capital of £50,C00. —I am, etc., Simple Simon.