Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-05-28


cernsd, with increased bus ness. though
the rates may fall, the pto6' IS will not les
sen. Gentlemen, this go i'd comfort re-
mains. the economic fact. is that falling
rate Of interest meats
A RISING RATE {, IF SECURITY,
and thls company, o stors we meet here
again, Will IN eli 2 fobsbility have more
than 3 quarter OF = million sterling loaned
on lanes IN Texes. think that this must
De eminentlY rf>essuring to you. Cheers.
beg to mo se, t'thst the directors IT,
port, bslesc sheet and statement Of ac-
counta OF tAe company, as certified by the
auditors, DE and are hereby approved and
adopted
Mr. David Macpherson seconded the
resolution.
The Right Hon. E. Marjoribanks, NJ
property and had received every informa
on from Mr.. S.lliman, snd Also Mr..
Woodbridge, who he believed was slso
connected with their company. He had
the advantage Of seeing their new offices
In Austin, which were eminently adapted
for Carrying on the business OF the COM
pany, and Mr.. Sililman showed him all
The various forms that were
gone through with regard to lonns.
BE could hardly conceive npy
system which was calculated to give
greater security 10 the company or Il the
borrower. This manager seemed - os-
cupy the greater part of his wac "a
horseback or visiting different propertH
on which it WAS suggessed inst aHfGy
should make loans. They were eHSsd-
ingly fortunate in having man eNell
qualified for carrying out the w94 They
had an Engllshmau and an AmSe6n, one
exercising q wholesome chez on the
other. That wss the system which they
had adopted in company Of which he
(Mr. Marioribanksl WAS the chairman,
and they found thar it was very useful.
He could not speak frcm having person.
ally visited any of the farms on which
they hsd left money, but he had general
idea CT the class OF lsrd on which they
made advances. He thought they had ex-
ercissd wise discretion in not making
advances on big ranches; 1t was better to
corfine themselves to
SMALL AGRICULTURAL PROPERTIES.
Not that he thought that big grazing
ranches were necessarily bad things, but
there had been certain amount of hocus-
pocus shout some of them. There was
no DOUBT that this company had q tremen
dous future. With regard to the rate Of
interest he believed they might consider
u to 10 per cent. as the normal rate Of
interest for mortgages, the same as 81 to
4 per cent. was here. Probably in The
future they would have to reduce the rate
of interest they charged, but he was
sure 1t would be as pre- fable to
the company as 1t would be sstis-
factory to the borrower. With regard
to the value Of land in the north, his
company bought very large tract OF land
about six years ego for which they paid
81 rs an scre. The land was now worth
from S. to sc an acre. The Land Mort
gage Bank of Texas lent on land st the
bottom CT the creeks, which WAS the most
valuable lsnd; SO that If they only ad
vanced u shlllings an acre he thought
they hso very safe investment for their
money. The chairman had said that
Texas was larger than France or Ger
many or Austria; he thought he tcould
say 1t WAS larger than alI three put to-
gether
MIR. JaJ-Not quite; 1t is getting thst
way.
Mr.. Msjoribanks believed 1t was larger
than France, Germany and Spain. He
believed thst life and property were as
safe ia Texas 81 they were in this coun-
try. Immense strides were being made
by the towns, as wss to be seen by their
public buildings. In conclusion he ad-
vised every gentleman connected with the
company to stick to 1t. Cheers
The motion for the adoption OF the re-
port WAS then put and carried uuani-
mously.
A dividend at the rate OF per cent. per
annum was declared, free of income tax.
Mr.. j. C. Wakefield, the retiring direc-
tor, was reelected, and Messrs. Thomas
White, Wade, Guthrie and company, the
retiring auditors, were reappointed.
Votes OF thaEks were passed to the
chairman and the directors, also to Mr..
Jsy, the mansger, and to the staf at
home and in Texas.
A special vote Of thanks was passed to
Mr.. Mnrioribanks for attending the meet
ing and the valuable Information he had
given the shareholders.
Mr.. jay have to thank you, Mr..
Chairman and gentlemen, on behalf Of
Mr.. Silliman and myself for your kind &C.
acknowledgement OF our services, but "Erg.
land 1pects every man to do his duty"
and as far as am concerned have only
done my duty. 1t has been great pleas
ure to me to serve the company, and 1t is
an intense qualification to me to be pres
ent to-day to share in its almost unpre-
cedented success. Perhaps may be al
lowed to detain you for moment
with one or two practical remarks. There
is still much misconception with regard
to Texas, not only among private in j.
viduals, but even smopg journalists, thst
many of the articles we see in the papers
sre entirely misleading. This arises to 3
large extent from an inadequate concep-
ton OF the size of Texas. II you question
sny one upon the subject they will say,
ooh, yes;
TEXAS Is A BIG ALACE,
perhaps as large as one of our own larg-
est counties, such as Lancashire or York
shire for instance" They have no idea
that there are ITO organized counties In
the state Of Texas, and that some Of these
counties are far larger than Lancashire
and nearly all Of them fully half as large.
Laue eshire, for example, has an ares of
907 square miles, while Hidalgo county
in Texas has IN area Of 1865 square miles,
Cameron county 3308 and FL Paso 8I8S
square miles.ESo that when we see
Starting prrsersph in the papers to the
effect that Texas Is devastated by q
food or ruined by drouth or . bliz-
zard or q failure of crops, or some
ofhor drc q dful sh3uUe r. noana 40 frra -