FINANCIAL NOTES
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO DISSENSIONS.
Shareholders of the British North Borneo Company will do well to attend the meeting which is called for the 8th inst., inasmuch"as a sharp dissension has arisen on the Board- on a point of vital interest. to shareholders. Of the directorate of seven, four members are agreed that a beginning. should be made forthwith in making provision for railway renewals. Inasinuch as no such provision has been made . for . about fifteen years, an amount of abotif 283;000 has been deducted from Reserve and credited to'a Railways Renewals Fund,-and it is decided that out of the current year's earnings a sum of 16,297 shall be contributed. This policy involves on the present occasion the passing of the dividend; and the propoial is challenged by a minority of three directors, including the President. Both sides have issued circulars to shareholders appealing for support. It is seldom that upon the Board of so important a company dissensions on a matter of policy assume so sharp a character, and the matter is, of course, one for the shareholders to determine. It is difficult, however, to peruse the Report and the circulars now issued without feeling that there appears to be good ground for the course advocated by the majority of four. Moreover, experience usually shows that when the cautious and prudent—sometimes the ultra- cautious—policy is adopted, it is not long_before ,shareholders themselves benefit. Even the effect of the passing of a divi- dend upon market values of the shares is usually of a temporary character when it is seen that the cause is a desire to place the finances of the company on the soundest possible basis. While the majority group of directors naturally enough refuse to submit a question of policy to any outside body, they give evidence of the strength of their position by expressing readiness, after the adoption of the Report and accounts, to afford all possible information to any small committee which the shareholders may desire to nominate.
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