Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 159, 3 February 1868, Page 3

PANAMA, NEW ZEALAND, AND AUSTRALIAN EOYAL MAIL COMPANY (LIMITED). The Directors of this Company have issued, the following report, dated November 29 : "The directors do not propose convening another general meeting this year. The accounts, as the shareholders are aware, are made up once during the twelve months, and are presented at the Annual General Meeting held in May or June ; therefore a meeting at this period of the year is only required when the question of an ad terim dividend, is to be submitted for consideration. '• The shareholders may have anticipated that the operations of the company since the date of the last accounts could scarcely have been attended with such prosperous results as to enable the board to recommend an immediate dividend in respect of the first six months of the current year, but the general improvement in the earnings of the vessels, both on the main line and on the local lines in New Zealand, has been, on the whole, very encouraging, The receipts for freight and passage-money on the Panama line, which for the three months from December to March averaged £2900 per month, have since been maintained at the monthly average of £4300. This progressive increase would, in the opinion of the board, have been much greater, but for the unfortunate effect on the through traffic between this country and New Zealand and Australia, caused by the outbreak of yellow fever in the West Indies. As, however, that exceptional hindrance to the full development of the traffic has now entirely disappeared, the directors feel every confidence there will be a much larger increase in the returns. " The directors have pleasure in adding the following extracts from the report of the Postmaster-General of New Zealand, recently laid before the General Assembly, and they doubt not that the impartial testimony it affords to the efficiency of the service across the Pacific will be appreciated by the shareholders :