The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-01-13
Board of Trade.

L
The annual meeting of the Board of Trade
was held at its rooms last evening, and the fol
lowing reports read and accepted:
SECRETARIES REPORT.
The Secretary would respectfully report thai
there have been % meetings held during the
| year.-18 meetings of the managers and foul
meetings of the full board, including specials.
| Three meetings were adjourned without tran
sacting business for want of quorum.
Nine members of the Board have died during
the year: n E. Deering, Hophn Eaton, F. O.
ert A. Bird, Edmund Libby, N. j. Miller. Jr,
| L. Weeks.
| This is the greatest number of deaths with
one exception) i'll any year since the Inaugural.
| ton of the Board
The Board now numbers 3O2 members who
nave paid the annual assessments the past year
against ~ reported at the last annual meeting
nave received for admission fees and annu.
al assessments 1854, and have paid the same to
the Treasurer "
oo The Merchants Exchange has at this time
"a members, slight falling off from the
number last reported The receipts from sub
scrlbers have been $166i %, making the agore-
gate receipts from all sources 80, 22S.25, or about
the same as the two previous years The i'm
been under Mr.. E. L. Ring, who has discharged
his duties faithfully and efficiently.
In TINS connection your secretary would ven
tnre the suggestion that an early movement
should be made to secure a more attractive
Merchants Exchange Room. 1t is all impor-
tant Portland should be properly represented in
the commercial statistics of the country, and to
this end a record of statistics of all receipts,
both by sea and land should be kept in the
records of the Exchange, available at fall times
10 send abroad. To insure this an attractive
room is wanted-not an expensive one-but an
Exchange" with all the modern improve
ments tor drawing-rooms, ante-rooms for pri
vate reading and private conversation, with
business offices and contingencies Immediate
~ adJ oinlng, which might be made an advanta-
Seous concentration of interests and attractive
to certain classes of business The present
Exchange room with its present limited capac-
ity aud meagre files has served to keep up the
identity of organization during the depression
caused by the great fire of 1866 and arising
from the loss of our commercial marine and
the suspension of our ship building interests;
but a brighter era is dawning on the business of
Portland, and we should Immediately take ad-
vantage of the times and provide an Exchange
room that win be source Of pleasure and
honor to the merchants of Portland. Six hum
bred members at an annual cost of $40 or SIS,
would secure an Exchange" presenting ad-
vantages and attractions that would at once
draw to its membership every business house
Of Importance in Portland
The statistical report of the trade and COM
merce OF the city, now in the hands of the
printer, shows that the commerce of the past
year has been the largest in its history, the
value OF imports being greatly in excess of any
previous year. The importations and ship
ment of lumber are much larger than during
any former year. Active preparations are
making for still larger business in all It's
branches. The revival of the shipping inter-
est having stimulated the market for all
kinds of ship timber and ships material a
large business is promised in this direction the
coming season. The month of September
witnessed the heaviest sales in the grocery and
some other branches of trade ever made before
in any one north in Portland. The manufact-
ureing interests have fully recovered from the
effects of the financial panic, and are in very
f1ourishlng condition. The general outlook
for the future was never more promising and
encouraging for Portland than at the present
time. NJ n RICH
Secretary.
METEOROLOGICAL REPORT.
The removal of the signal office from its old
location to one where the instruments and sig
nails are more conveniently and conspicuously
placed is the only change in the affairs of the
Office, that we have to communicate, We are
still, as for the last year and half, without
the bulletin reports from other sections of the
country, as the lines over which they are sent
reach in this direction only to Boston. The
probabilities as published in the papers, and
the storm signals, are continued as usual; but
these are hardly sufficient to meet the business
wants of the community, especially of naviga
tion Moreover, the midnight probabilities
prepared expressly for the morning papers do
not reach here though the Associated Press in i
time for publication, and our papers are oblig-
ed to give those made up from observations
takeu some hours earlier; and as these are
published in an abridged form and disconne ct
ed from the synopsis sent with them, they are
necessarily not always reliable as basis for
governing the movements of vessels We see
no immediate prospect of our receiving from
this service all the facilities it affords to OF her
sections of the country. This board and the
should be made aware that the
storm signals are regulated from Washington,
and that the frequent delay in removing them
after the storm has passed is not due to the
neglect of any one connected with the Office
here.
G. FL. FARLEY,
M. n. RICH,
JAMES S. BEDLow,
Met Conanaitfaa