The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-12 00:00:00

AFRICAN STEAMSHIP.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the office, Leadenhall-street ;
Mr. P. D. Hadow in the chair.

Mr. D. Campbell, the secretary, read the report,
an abstract of which appeared in The Sun.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, congratulated the shareholders on the satis-
factory manner in which they had passed through a
period during which other steam companies had
suffered losses from depression of trade, cyclones,
and other disasters. The ship they had lost in the
River Nun had been fully insured, which covered
the sum she stood for in their books. He was glad
to say that the mail service had been admirably per-
formed, so that the Post-office had no complaint to
make, which was due in a great degree to the effi-
ciency of their vessels and the exertions of their
agents at Liverpool. The monthly mail line had
been carried on very satisfactorily. He thought if
they went on gradually replacing those ships by supc-
rior ones they would have the trade more to them-
selves, and be better able to compete against any op-
position that might arise. They had made an arrange-
ment with Messrs. Randolph, Elder, and Co. to con-
struct a steam vessel for them, by which they would
obtain a very superior steamer, and get rid of two
vessels which were not suitable for the requirements
of the service. They proposed that the new ship
should be paid for out of revenue and not out of
capital. They asked the shareholders to make such
a reserve out of revenue as would provide the com-
pany with superior vessels, and at the same time
allow of the payment of a Lir dividend on the
paid-up capital. The company had been very
prosperous for some time past, but a time might
come when they might have oprosition, or perhaps
their Mends the French might start a line of
steamers from Marseilles, with a large subsidy, for
political as well as commercial purposes. That was
another reason to abstain from dividing too much,
until they were in a position to maintain a fair and
permanent dividend. A shareholder had proposed
that they should take out of the boiler and repair funds
a bonus to be added to the £lO already paid up on
each share. lie could not agree to that proposition,
as he thought it would be highly impolitic to increase
the capital in any way. They must pay dividend
on the actual cash paid up, and the directors were
unanimous on that point. Their legal adviser had
told them that the directors had no power to do as
proposed without a supplementary charter, which
would not be granted for that purpose. They pro-
posed to alter the form of account so as to have nc,
separate boiler or other fund, but a general fund
for all those purposes.
Mr. NORTON, a director, seconded the motion for
the adoption of the report,.
Mr. HILL said he could not see why the share-
holders should not have a bonus out of the boiler
fund ; what he proposed was that they should take
13 per share out of the surplus profits, which he
considered very large, and add the amount to the
£lO paid, making £l3 paid up on the shares.
After a short discussion the report was unani-
mously adopted, a dividend of Bs. per share was de-
clared for the past half-year, payable on the 14th
inst., and also a bonus of 2s. per share, payable on
the same day.

On the motion of Mr. Hill, the proceedings con-
cluded with a vote of thanks to the chairman and
directors.