COMPANY MEETING
SEDENAK RUBBER ESTATES
SATISFACTORY CONDITION OF ESTATES
THE twenty-eighth ordinary general meeting of the Sedenak Rubber Estates Ltd. was held on January 25th, at Winchester House, London, E.C.
Mr. Philip C. Turnbull,' O.B.E. (the Chairman), who presided, said : Whereas last year, 1,262 acres were classed as immature, this figure has now been reduced to 365 acres, thus adding almost goo acres to the mature area. As a partial offset to this, 200 acres of the oldest and poorest yielding rubber on the Sedenak Division were cut down and replanted during the financial year.
I would like to quote from the manager's annual report on this subject. He says, The cost of production was higher, notwithz standing the increased output, but this can be explained to a large extent by there having been granted to the libouf force a substantial increase in pay, charging of replanting to revenue, increasing duty, Tamil Assessment, and opening up and bringing into tapping some 1,100 acres of young rubber." An agitation for higher wages was largely brought about by the sudden rise in the price of rubber in the early part of last year, and now that prices' have fallen theta is little reason to apprehend any further wage increases, so that costs can be Considered as stabilised for the time being, arid, in fact, it is hoped that during the current year costs will work out on a slightly lower basis. " Besides labour, materials and replanting charges, there is another item of increased cost to which attention should be drawn. This company pays large sums annually in the East in the form of Govern- ment charges, and we are, therefore, interested in any pronounce- ments of Government financial policy in Malaya. Recently the Financial Commissioner in Johore made the suggestion that taxation should be increased in good times, when people are best able to bear it. For our part, we would like to point out to the Malayan Govern- ments that the rubber industry is already heavily taxed and, far from there being any justification for increased taxation at this time, there is, on the contrary, a strong case for an early and permanent reduction in the scale of Government charges. The latter in the financial year under review constituted 124 per cent. of our estate working costs.
The year's working has resulted in a profit of £43,000, which must be regarded as satisfactory, although when paying the interim dividend of 5 per cent., which was based on approximate profits of £25,000 for the first six months' working, we did not anticipate a further and continuous fall in market prices, and at that time antici- pated that we would have over £50,000 to show for the full year's profits. The report and accounts were unanimously adopted.
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