Taupiri Coal Mines

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 6, 1 May 1914, Page 3

Taupiri Coal Mines

ANNUAL REPORT. The fifteenth annual meeting of the shareholders of the Taupiri Goal Mines, Ltd, was held in the Chamber of Commerce, Auckland, on Wednesday last, Mr E. W. Alison presiding. The chairman, in moving the adoption of the report and balance sheet, stated that after making full provision for depreciation, the net profit earned for the year was £9468 Is which, with the amount carried fr rward from last year, gave a total of £12,494 16s Id available for distribution (1) by making tlie annual dividend 1 6 per share (half of which had already been paid as an interim dividend ; (2) by adding £IOOO to the reserve fund ; and (3) by carrying the remainder forward to next year’s account. Owing to the strike, which lasted for eleven weeks, the profits for the year had been reduced by £2166, while the loss in wages to the workers had approximated £20,000. During the labour troubles, the directors had a very trying time, but, thanks to the firm attitude assumed and to the sympathy so generously accorded by the shareholders, the strike ended in the defeat of syndical is m|wi th per nicio u s propoganda and in the triumph of arbitration and sane unionism. A- new industrial agreement had been made with the result that in no country and in no industry were men working under better conditions and for better wages. After referring to the excellent work of the farmers at a time when lawlessness and anarchy threatened to overwhelm order and produce and industrial chaos, Mr Allison mentioned that as a consequence of the strike the output for the year had been reduced by 38,326 tons. The scheme which the Company had formulated for the purpose of enabling approved workers to become owners of their homes at the lowest possible cost was fully explained. Fifty acres of land had been roaded and cut up into quarter acre sections, which were being disposed of at considerably less than their actual value. The freehold acquired, the accepted worker could apply for a loan of £350 to build his house, and by weekly repayments was enabled to wipe out interest and sinking fund in fifteen years. Arrangements had also been made for the disposal of the house in the event of death or departure of the mortgagee. The scheme —though it had received a set back during the strike —was likely to prove most popular, and a boon to married men who were given a unique and easy opportunity, on the most reasonable terms, of securing homes of their )wn. Development work had proved most satisfactory. Coal of excellent quality was abundant, new and thick seams being met. with constantly, so much so that with their plant and machinery the Company was ready and prepared to cope with an unlimited demand. Mr Alison paid a high compliments to the mine officials, “a fine body of men, who had worked most assiduously to further the interests of the company, and who were deserving of a special word of praise for the manner in which they had performed their duties, and had stood to their post during the time of the strike. The engineers and firemen, too, had stuck to their agreement manfully and had refused to cease work at the call of the federation. The report and balance-sheet were adopted*, aid the retiring directors (Messrs Alison and G. Winstone) were reelected. The diectors were complimented on the capable manner in which they had dealt with the strike, and as a recognition of the able services rendered, the mee iiug voted a sum of £l5O lor distribution among them —not as payment for services rendered, but as an indication of the sympathy of the shareholders.