COLONIAL SUGAR CO.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17249, 3 May 1930, Page 7

COLONIAL SUGAR CO.

ANNUAL MEETING HELD SYDNEY, May 2. The report of the Colonial Sugar Refining Co., Ltd., lor tlie half-year ended Mai'cti 51 discloses tlie profits during that period amounted to £1446,356. The uoard proposes to pay a. dividend of 2Ua and a uunus of 26s per shave, which wilt ausoru £)j05,626. tlie* balance of £79,ril will be added to the balance ui tlie profit and Joss account as at September 01, bringing the total to £490,408, and from this sum the board will pljice £IOO,oUJTo tlie reserve fund. The chairman, Air. li. W. Knox, at tlie meeting of shareholders to-day, said tlie company, like others, was compelled to accept lower profits, bul there were tlie investments, and Hie company fortunately had not been affected toy the fluctuations in tbe ■sugar market. He alluded to tlie increasing difficulty of finding a market for tlie output of sugar of British tropical countries, including Fiji, owing to tlie fact that the surplus sugar 1 lqm other countries is being! sold at a price well below the bare cost of production. Nor was it true that the Colonial •Sugar Co. was making undue profits. They were, in fact, smaller than before the war. Actually, more than one-fifth of tlie profits went in taxes. He made a passing reference to the floods and hurricane in Fiji and to the damage to plants and crops, and stated that the new refinery at Perth was just commencing work. Its cost had greatly exceeded the original estimate. The directors’ report stated that there was no evidence of increased world consumption of sugar, while the output next season would probably fall short of that of 1929. Both reports were adopted. Mr. R. L. Faithfull was re-elected director and Mr. R. W. Gillespie elected in place of Sir Norman Kater, who had resigned. i