TARANAKI BACON COMPANY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81860, 8 October 1906, Page 3

TARANAKI BACON COMPANY.

MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS. A special general meeting of shareholders in tile TaianaU Co-opi raiive ltason Company was held in die Town 11:11, New I'iymoudi, on Saturday afternoon. Tlit-ie wen about twenty shaich»lder=>,pre-cnt, Mr Jl. (Jkey, chairman of direct,,,.,, presiding. The chairman explained that the shareholders had been called together t'> consider an offer to lease the company's premises at Fitzroy. The offer came from Mr Darling, who intended using the factory a> meat extract works. Mr Okey reviewed t,te recent running of the Ccmpany. Wiinn lie had a~suraed the position of chairman, the annual balance-sheet showed that there had been a loss of £6oo or for the working yiar just closed. In

addition to that the incoming direct- " orate had found the list of sharehold- . ers and share capital, produced as an asset, needed reduction. Some of them were not worth a cent. On ton ' of that the directors had had to settle accounts amounting to about /'nn for material u-ed in the previous year. The portion was therefore much worse than he had been led to expect, and the directors were unable to meet , their liabilities at that time. There was then a bank overdraft of £SO, and the bank required a further payment of £250 on the property (onlv /-5o had been paid). Five" of the directors came to the rescue, and by signing a joint and several guarantee to the bank for .£3OO had met thee two liabilities. Since then they had paid off another leaving a debt °f £750 on the property at the present ! time. This was ihe only liability. .he company did not owe £lO other- ; wise. The shareholders had been paid . regularly every month for pigs sup- ■ P'ied. and altogether during the past eight months he had become fully convinced that the factory eould be made io pay a good profit if it were properly supported by the shareholders. But more pigs—from So to j 100 a week and more capital,

another /.2000 were required. To-day there was £406 owing' to thi company for bacon sold, they had £2c worth of stock, and ,£3OO >harem<>ne\ outs anding could be surely estimated at £2OO. giving a total' of £(£2. These funds eould be applied to further payments on the property account. and would almost clear off thai debt. Returning to the question of working the concern, Mr Okey pointed out that it cost nearly as much in wages to cure 40 pigs as to cure 100 a week. The extra cost was merely the wages of a man on the two killing days each week. Financing this concern was not like running a butter f .rtory, where the payments for produce were regular. In the bacon business stocks had to be allowed to accumulate at times, so that no money was coming in, but the pig, had to Lc paid for just the same. For this reason extra capital was required. He mentioned that last month the company had sent out 3SO hams, and they had now orders for bacon and

hams amounting to over ,£'ooo. It seemed, though, thai the outside companion was going to prevent the local taciory receiving many pigs this season, the farmers, even the shareholders, prefri ring to send pigs to outside buyers or to WaHara, at the risk of closing down their own concern. The chairman cump ain-d ol mis want of ioyaity, and warned tin sbaicholders that it the co-operative cone, rai were compelled to cea-e operations, and a couple oi big proprietary cumpanies secured the monopoly, illey would have to accept Jjd a pound lor their pork as in former days. But if the shareholders wcie dcicumned to send most of me pigs elsewhere, it was useless to run tins factory at a 10-s, and it seemed to him a good idea 10 ahow Mr Darling to have the premises for a year, and then decide on fuiure action. The premises would need certain alterations. Mr Darling would have niese made, and would deposit a suiliei'nt sum of

money to return the buildings to their present order at the teimination of his lease. With such an otter a~ tnis, he for one was not going to waste his rime in endeavouring to run iiie factory at a profit when the shareuolders gave no a-sis-ance, going, as it were, past ineir own doors Willi Uicir pigs to Waitara. The freezing «orks would take all the small pig.,, and if the pigs were sold to tnem ><»ung there was liult- product oi securing bacouers. And thi-, ton. just .\nen the duectors had got mtu a eaietul and economical way ot 1 uuinn[t 11,e factory, and success wa acertaiti a there w-re suliieuni supplies. In answer to a question, Ml Okey said tau asse;s of tile company were about iiiHA), so that the rent offered 1. presented about a 5 per cent investment for them.

Mr Tribe was in favour of giving Uie directors power to clo-se wito this utfer. It was useless to continue if t.-ere were insufficient pig 3; The chairman s aid the director* favoured the proposal as they cou.d not carry on witnout more capital Mr Colson mentioned the possibility of conducting the operations in the same building with Mr Darling * business. He would advocate the ieuntion of tlv frtchold, so that ihcj would not be forced to stand any nonnsc from pig-buyers. It theie was any trouble with tiie proprietary concerns, it would be quite >impl<' t»> set this factory in operation. Mr Munro, one of the directors, favoured leasing* which wou'd make Uie property self-supporting, would place it in a better condition at the end of tlx-' year than ii was today. It was a forrunate circumstance wiat Mr Darling woul db<- ready to go „ut at three months' notice, so that t.v- company couid re-enter if it b ( - lame advisable to re-commence the manufacture of bacon. Bui it A\as ,-~enti.il that the company must lia\e more capital. The nominal capnal wa » .XX), but the actua 1 amount »üb-crib'd was abou, £:(>w only, l'hev cuu'd manage with /.ilhu at the bank and iioou lrom nnv -hares. A Shareholder: \ou wont yet

Mr J. A. Whitaker, another director, reeonim' nded the acceptance ot this otter. It was only by the mo*; scrupulous aitenii' n that 'lie directors had made things turn out so well m the paii eight nicnhts, but had theie be 11 a better supply "( pig» di' y could have --h"\%ed a protc. H" remarked tl;at fully -5 I'er tent, vt the capital ~t the company had been -üb-cribrd liy !!:•■ :o'An-p'npl' in older to a-si-t ihe iaini'rs ill e- ab.i-i'.ing a paying ndustrv. but it seemed the fame-is «,-ic not :eady to help rhemselvt-S. Any future shares would have to be raited amongst the farmers. A shareholder said it was not fair to blame the farmers for the non-»uec-ss which had been due to -the messmgup at the start. Mr Whi'aker retorted that «h"»

thi-i'" wie n«-w diitciuia and new niauagemfn' ill- support- wa.-* n«> h> tier. The Shareholder: We had l»t all confidante long before. Mr Davids said there were ;i l ways iinanii< ip.it'-*d diftkuiti''* in Martini; v.< w < otnpan ; e~, and thi- <*' ny i\-»t Mn.uula- at aH. Mr li"ie yh< Id th-re wa- no tv♦ dto c."-e down. There would be ;mv amount nt What wcr- they da with di-ii heavy pigs? Waitara "nly w.infd ligh:w eights. A Coast: Miar«'li'ildiT eompiained ihat pig- f rom Uoast ut ' r '' <l,n " d'-mni'd in large numb'-i- at this facro; y. tiie pig> if M*nt i<> Opunake would be taken without a murmur. The chairman said t ho cnipaiiy v.,- determined to have sound pig'-* and all wcic in-pcx-iod in the ordinal/ v. av. A voice: W-11. h"W i> it they K" to U'lhi^tun? i ho Chairman: It • r,, in- tlry rat .mv.hmg in fin. >.lr !b;>kin th«»u»ht ,i a pity n> Iraße T- il( ;,,t\- Mr Dailing J4.»ve .in .!~" s ur>iii' '' that the two - , cii'd be -IK Uin iogr h'-T. A motion authorising the »T-■ hi W;i-f th»* premises w; ; s then carped. Mr K. Ti ib» moved a very hearty v-*t • ».{•' thanks to tin* directors for tj>e;r ab'- cnnduei nf the <-<:ntpany - atY.'ifS. and pariuilaily for giving tV r pcr>«tnal undej inking to the bank in lie - b'half when it was f|iiiir pr ; «bab!'' tha r <h ,J y wmiid Inst •.hpropt'ity. Mr l)ave>. tn -ei,,nding. siid they W»"e unable to V'te ;» U) 1 h»-im-n who had pulVd tin- company together. but tluy should show hearty appreciation. Mr Okey acknowledged i u '

mcnt, and assured the meeting that a: the iinr.' the <Jin-i'!■ accepicd liabilU to lu' bank line would ii.iv:1)1 i n a big chance of In- bank disposing of tin; properly. At (lie prcsi-ni time the company's Ijuil-.thiKs could almost Ih' said to be clear of debt. This concluded I'ie business.