The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-21 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL BANK OF IRELAND.
The twenty-second yearly general meeting of the proprie-
tors of the Provincial Bank of Ireland was held at twelve
o'clock yesterday, at the offices of the bank, 42, Old Broad-
street. Oliver Farrar,'.Esq., was called to the chair, on the
motion of Sir Moses Montefiore.
The advertisement convening the meeting having been
re The CHAIRMAN proposed the re-election of the four follow-
ing directors, who went out by annual rotation :—John Allis-
ton, Esq., James Ferrer, Esq., John Petty Muspratt, Esq.,
And Alfred Thorp, Esq.
The motion was unanimously adopted.
The CHAIRMAN then said that the next duty he had to
perform was to call on the Secretary to read the report of the
directors upon the proceedings of the establishment during the
last awful and eventful year. He would enter into no state-
ment until that report should have been laid before them ;
after that he would be happy to give any information that
might be required of hi.n ; and he trusted that the report
would be satisfactory to the meeting.
The SECRETARY then read the following report:—
" In submitting to this meeting the result of the business
of the bank for the year ending the 27th March last, the di-
rectors feel it to be necessary to notice the calamitous circum-
stances resulting from the failure of the potato crop of last
year, and the very great distress and suffering that has in
consequence existed and still prevails in Ireland; but while
a matter of such importance, affecting every interest in the
kingdom, and calculated, immediately or more remotely, to
exercise great influence on the welfare of the community,
cannot be passed over in silence, the sufferings of the Irish
people have occupied so great a share of attention and sym-
pathy in this country, and may be said to have become so
painfully familiar to all, that it is not necessary on this occa-
sion to detain the proprietors by attempting to state any de
tails, the leading features of which must be already so well
known.
" In their report to the last yearly general meeting, the
directors in referring to the distress that had existed in Ire-
land prior to that time, stated that they had felt it to be their
duty to contribute on the part of the bank, in aid of the local
subscriptions for promoting employment and providing food.
Urgent applications for pecuniary assistance in relieving the
destitute have since continued from time to time to be re-
ceived by the directors, with which they have not hesitated
to comply. The directors, however, have not made a general
subscription to any of those associations through which large
amounts have been contributed by the benevolent in this
country and elsewhere, it having been considered that through
the instrumentality of the bank's officers in Ireland, and the
local committees formed in the districts in which the several
branches are situated, the sums voted from the funds of the
bank could be more beneficially and economically applied.
" The directors cannot omit to notice that the necessity
which arose for large importations of grain, at a period when
apprehensions of scarcity and a consequent demand for it ex-
isted, in order to supply the wants of other European king-
doms, has led to greatly increased prices, which, combined
with other causes, has had a material effect upon the money-
market. To this the directors have for a considerable time
looked forward, and they have accordingly throughout the
whole of the past year exercised the utmost vigilance and
caution. The proprietors will readily understand that, in
consequence of the comparative cessation of exports from Ire-
land, and the large imports of food into that country, a great
change must necessarily have taken place in the current of
commercial and of banking business there, and to this change
it has, of course, become requisite from time to time to adapt
the regulations under which the business of this bank had
been previously conducted. This has required and has re-
ceived the daily and anxious attention of the directors, and it
has been their object to afford every reasonable facility to
those engaged in commercial and agricultural pursuits, but,
at the same time, to keep the operations of the bank within
prudent limits, and they are happy to say the results, up to
this time, have been satisfactory.
" The new branch opened at Carlow, in March, 1846, not
having received that support and encouragement which was
expected, the directors, towards the end of last year, re-
eolved to withdraw it, and the business has accordingly been
wound up, and the branch closed.
" The directors have now to call the attention of the pro-
prietors to the statement of account which they are enabled
to submit to the meeting.
The account submitted to the yearly general
meeting in May, 1846, showed the amount
of rest, on uncivided profits, at March,
1846, to be £114,923 10 4
From which has been deducted the amount
of two half-yearly dividends paid to the
proprietors, viz
At Midsummer, 1846, 4 per cent. £21,600
At Christmas, 1846, 4 per cent. 21,600
Together

43,200 0 0

Leaving a balance of £71,723 10 4
To which there has since been added the
amount of nett profits for the year ending
on the 27th, being the last Saturday of
March, 1847, after deducting property-tax
and all expenses, and providing for all bad
and doubtful debts

Making the rest, or amount of undivided
profits, at the 27th March, 1847..„...... £126,196 12
" In this state of the bank's affairs, and five years having
elapsed since the proprietors had any participation in the
reserved profits, 'which have during that time been gradu-
ally accumulating, the directors feel themselves justified in
appropriating a portion of the present reserve, and they have
therefore the satisfaction of announcing it to be their in-
tention to pay in July next a bonus of 11. on each 1001.
share, and Bs. on each 101. share of the capital stock of
the bank, in addition to the usual half-yearly dividend of
four per cent., which will make the sum to be then paid
21. on each 1001. share, and 16s. on each 10/. share, for the half-
year ending at Midsummer next; and the directors purpose
also to pay the property-tax for the proprietors as heretofore.
(Signed) " ROBERT CAMPBELL, Chairman."
The Rev. l'ne.sur. HEWSON said he believed—and he was
Sure it was also the belief of every other proprietor—that the
management of the bank during the last eventful year did
the greatest credit to their board of directors and to the other
officers of the establishment. He could state from his per-
sonal knowledge of Ireland, and from what he had read in
the newspapers, that no company could have exerted itself
more for the relief of distress than the Provincial Bank of
Ireland had done of late; and it was a most gratifying fact
that after a year of such an awful character the nett profits of
the bank should be greater than they had' been during the
preceding year. He thought they were very much indebted
to the present board of directors for their successful efforts to
advance the prosperity of the bank; and he was sure that
the handsome manner in which they had come forward on
that occasion to propose a bonus must meet with the appro-
bation of every proprietor.—(Hear, hear.) He wished to
take that opportunity of putting a question to the chairman
with respect to the withdrawal of the branch at Carlow. It
had been stated last year that the branch at Lurgan had
been withdrawn; but, as Lurgan was an insignificant place,
that statement had excited no surprise. Carlow, however,
was a prosperous town, surrounded by a rich agricultural dis-
trict; ani, although he felt the utmost confidence in their
board of directors, he wished to asked the chairman if he
could give any explanation with respect to the withdrawal
of the branch of their bank from that town?
The CHAIRMAN said that the directors had been led to
suppose that Carlow required further banking assistance, and
they had therefore established a branch there. But as they
found by experience that that assistance was not required,
and as it had never been their policy to intrude themselves
on a district of which the wants were already adequately
and satisfactorily supplied, they had thought proper to with-
draw their Carlow branch. Before that withdrawal had
taken place the branch had been established during the
greater part of a year, mid its business had, towards the
latter end of the period, fallen off rather than increased.
The Rev. Mr. HEWSON said he thought that explanation
was quite satisfactory. He took it for granted that the Bank
of Ireland had ensured to itself the banking business of
Carlow during the period when it possessed a monopoly in
all towns so near Dublin, so that there was at present no
opening there for another bank. [The Chairman intimated
that that was the case.) He should not detain the meet-
ing further than to propose that " The report just read by
the secretary be adopted, and circulated among the pro-
prietors."
The motion, having been seconded, was put from the
chair and unanimously agreed to.
The CHAMIAN said, he could not allow the meeting to
separate without addressing to them a very few words. In
the first place, he thought he should be acting with great
injustice to those officers of the bank to whom its prosperity
was in a great degree to be attributed, if he did not take that
opportunity of expressing his gratitude, and the gratitude,
he believed, of all his colleagues, for the zealous and eficient
services of those gentlemen.—(Hear, hear.) He did not
wish on that occasion to particularise too many of them, and
he would therefore only refer to the services of the three
principal officers of the establishment, Mr. Murray, Mr. Raw-
lins, and Mr. Hewat. He had no hesitation in saying that
he did not believe there was an establishment in the kingdom
which possessed more admirable officers than those three
gentlemen. The exertions of Mr. Murray were almost be-
yond belief; and the only fault the directors of the bank
found with him was his earnest anxiety to do with one head
and with one pair of hands the duties of several.—(Hear.)
Mr. Rawlins had been a member of the establishment ever
since its formation, and for him every member of the board
of directors felt the utmost respect.; while his attention to
business had been to the proprietors of the highest import-
ance.—(Hear.) Of Mr. Hewat, who sat beside him, he could
only say, as he was then present,. that his business had very
greatly increased—that in indefatigable seal and industry be
could not be surpassed, and that every day added to the
respect entertained for him by the directors. He had
also to state that to their local officers, in this trying year,
they owed much, and that those gentlemen had their most
cordial thanks. It could hardly have been expected that,
with so many branch establishments as they had, their
officers would have escaped the ravages of that fatal disease
which prevailed; throughout Ireland, and he was sorry to
have to state on that occasfon that Mr. Mackenzie, one
of their most useful and :respected managers, had
lately fallen a sacrifice to fever. That gentleman was
a person whom they all esteemed; he had been in the
service, of the bank since the year 1828; he had been
for some time an inspector, and then, at his own desire, had
been again appointed a manager in Waterford, where he
had been acting to the entire satisfaction of the directors, aid
where he had unfortunately lately fallen a victim to the
fever which was raging throughout Ireland. He had left a
widow and eight children, with the early expectation of a
ninth; and he (the Chairman) believed he need hardly say
that the directors
their consideratione Would
consider it their duty to take into ituat ion of thatfamily.—(Hear, hear.)
Leaving the melancholy
might appear extraordinary that, in such a year as the pre-
sent, the directors should
stropreaet,h.hatowaevbeorn,us be given to
the proprietors. In the fill':
(llearelieved, in he should ob-
serve that there was no year,
laughter.)
whichter. 3 a bonusln
the
would be more acceptable.—
next place, he should state that durinandth years during
g
a bonus, the
which the proprietors had patientl the
reserve fund, out of which it was to bewailed paid, had
duall increasing ; and after the bonus Was paidrtr on
gra-
yfund would amount to about 104,000/., whereas afterea
reservebonus
had last been paid the reserve fund had amounted to o 3
about 93,000/., or 11,0001. less. He had only further to not;
serve, that it had been their endeavour throughout the year
to give every accommodation in Ireland that could be fairly
expected from them. He had no hesitation in saying that
the amount of accommodation they had been able to give
during the year in Ireland had cons.iderably exceeded that
which they had been able to give in other years. At the
same time he was sure that every gentleman must see that
when it became expedient and necessary for an establish-
ment like the Bank of England—the source of all money
its
accommodation in the kingdom—to restrict the amount of
accommodation to the public, it behoved all other establish-
ments, which must necessarily be guided by the movements
of the Bank of England, to follow to a certain extent the
cautious policy of that bank.— (Hear, hear.) It could,
therefore, have hardly been expected that the managers of
the Provincial Bank of Ireland should not have been in some
instances forced to place a check on what they considered
undue speculation.—( Hear, hear.) But they had earnestly
endeavoured to give, throughout Ireland, every accommo-
dation which they could afford consistently with a due
regard for the interests of the proprietors of the establish-
ment.—(Hear, hear.)
A Paanizroz said he believed that the exertions of the