COMPANY MEETINGS
GOPENG (PERAK) RUBBER ESTATES
THE fifteenth annual general meeting of Gopeng (Perak) Rubber Estates, Limited, was held on July 9th, 1941, at Haywards Heath.
Mr. A. H. Doherty, the chairman, presided.
The chairman's address, which had been circulated with the report .nd accounts, was as follows:
At our last meeting I referred at some length to the unfairness of the Limitation of Dividends Bill. The Bill was dropped, but the EP.T. rate was raised to too per cent., and has been maintained at that figure in spite of vigorous opposition from industry in general. In his Budget speech the Chancellor stated that zo per cent. of the tax would be repaid to companies after the war, on certain conditions, but these have not yet been defined, and in my view it would be eery unwise to Lssume that our industry will receive any benefit from this clause.
DIVIDEND OF 10 PER CENT.
With regard to the accounts now presented, the profit for the year o as £43,213, and after adding the amount brought forward and allow- ing for the allocations to reserves as set out in the appropriation account, there is an available balance of £31,124. Your directors recommend the payment of a dividend of to per cent., less tax, which with the tax thereon will absorb E23,760, leaving £6,533 to be carried forward, after providing for extra remuneration to directors under Article 86.
Our programme for replanting areas on Gopeng Estate is being continued, and the substantial allocation to estates reserve provides for our commitment in this respect. During the year to8 acres were replanted and 5o acres of new planting were completed. We have given instructions to replant a further 137 acres this year, so that by the end of 1941 we should have 542 acres of young rubber planted with modern materiaL This represents 12 per cent. of our total planted area.
ADDITIONAL AREA ACQUIRED
During last year we acquired an area of 51 acres adjoining Kahang Estate, of which 43 acres contain untapped rubber planted in 1927-28. The company's standard assessment has been fixed provisionally at 2.126,610 lbs., the same as for last year. Over half of the exportable crop for the current year has been sold at a price equivalent to approxi- mately is. per lb., but against this the increased and increasing costs of marketing must not be overlooked. We are experiencing no diffi- culty in producing the maximum crop now required, and Kahang Estate is coming fully up to our earlier anticipations in this respect.
The report and accounts were adopted.
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