partly through the sale of an equity interest in all of our Australian mining operations to the Australian public. This is something we are publicly committed to do, provided we can find an acceptable way not only from our standpoint but a way that meets the sometimes conflicting regulations regarding foreign investment of the United States and Australian governments. We have ended the 1960's on a high note with earnings, dividends, backlog, and share prices all at record levels. As we examine the company and its prospects for 1970, we view with a measure of pardonable pride the progress that we have made. We believe that we have forged a company that has served and can continue to serve its shareholders well. We did so with dedication to the concept that management is responsible for operating the assets entrusted into its care for the best long-range interests of the shareholders. To us this meant that the company had to be operated in a manner that caused the dividends to increase and the price of the shares to rise, for these are the only benefits that accrue directly to the shareholder of a going concern. We recognized that these objectives could only be accomplish if we improved both the size and the quality of our earnings and achieved a rate of growth well above the average. Experience had demonstrated that the investment community held in low esteem earnings from construction, and so we turned our efforts, gradually at first and then with increasing momentum, to the more promising fields. The performance was far from flawless, but the record testifies that we have had considerable success in meeting our objectives. In 20 years we have transformed what was essentially a construction -7-