FIRES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 7, 3 October 1907, Page 9

FIRES.

ir A MAN'S NARROW ESCAPE. An outbreak of fire occurred at No. 41 Courtenay Place at 3 o'clock yesterday morning, in ' a four-roomed ; building occupied by Messrs. Do Lanoy Bros, as a butchers' shop and dwelling. Constable Wright, who discovered the outbreak, notified the Fire ■Brigade, which arrived on tho scene and succeeded in confining the outbreak to a small back bedroom, which, with its contents, was damaged. Tho houso was filled with dense smoke, and a story was circulated that there was somebody m the building. Deputy-Superintendent. O'Brien made an examination of the premises, and found tho occupant, William Do, Lanoy, lying insensible on a stretcher in one of the front rooms. The unconscious man was promptly removed from the house, and first aid was applied by the firemen and police, but without result. In the meantime Dr. Elliott was sent for, and on arrival found Do Laney in a serious condition, and ordered his immediate removal to tho Hospital. Tho' building is owned by Mr. E. Moult, and is insured for £520 in the South British Office.

THE SHARE MARKET. _ The sales reported on! 'Change yesterday., covercd New Zealand Insurance and National Mortgage. The former -made £4 Is. fid., the same price as on the previous day, and tho return to the i;ivestor : is equal to 44 18s. Id. percent. The balancing period of the New Zealand, Insurance. Company does not terminate until November 30, and the activity of the shares at the comparatively high price of 44 Is. Gd. must have ■ some reason back of. it. Perhaps, investors expect a higher dividend than 1() per cent., which was paid for the last 'financial year, and on the whole there ■is probably considerable justification for thip view. Underwriters are experiencing a comparatively better time, and the New Zealand Insurance Company is certain to be participating in this. The company will probably pay 12! per cent, or even 15 per cent., in which case JEM Is. Gd. is a moderate price to pay for the shares. National Mortgage shares have been in very strong demand, at £3 3s:, for somo time past, but a-shil-ling more was necessary to bring about a sale. At, .83'4s. the shares return ,£G as., which is an excellent yield, com--pared with what is obtained from other*, of the favoured investment stocks. The financial'year of this company dosed on September 3d, and it will V some weeks yet before advices aro received from London as to the results.

The buying and selling offers recordeJ yesterday . show no very materia: Kihange. Bank shares continue neglected; Nationals are still offered a! 45 9s. Except for the single sale referred to. abovo there'is quietness ir •Insurance; shares. Financial shares er. - . hibrt the. same features as were noted yesterday. There are buyers of Equitable Building at 410, National Mort gage at 43 35., and New Zealand nnc River Plate.at 295. Gd. Wellington Investment shares have been offered ai 12s. 3d. for some time past, and it ii obvious that sellers must bo con ten - ! with a shade less money to induce business. »Gas shares are unchanged. Hawera Gas shares are wanted'at 21s. while sellers ask 235., and the figure: suggest - a midway meeting-place \fo: buyer and seller. Feilding Gas shate are still in demand at 17s:, but, as previously suggested, the,price is not sufficiently high r-to attract sellers, am' an advance is imperative if business if desired. The Feilding Gas Company has completed seven months of its current financial year, and the director? must now be able to form a'pretty foil idea of the probable, results of tin year's trading. , The. indications ar' - Ihat-these shares will advance; if onl; slightly. Wellington Gas shares, 4,' paid-up, are. wanted at 49 10s. Napie - Gas shares are offered at 425, 41G, anc' 43.105. for the respective issues. Mea! shares exhibit no change whatever, llu buying offers being confined ,to Gearf at 475., and Meat Export at 43 ss. Gd. for the third issue. As the financial yfcar. of the Gear ,Company, closes or. November 30, an advance oii the pricc named above seems inevitable. Mana-wat-u Rails are,offered at 425., and Wellington Steam Ferry 20s. paid-up at f discount of 2s. Kaiapoi Woollen sharci are wanted at 45, which is the face o: paid-up value of the shares. Welling ton Woollens are offered at 43 10s. but the price soars above buyers' idea: of value. Coal .shares - are without variation. Buyers of Westport Coal arunable to fill their wants with' bids of 47 .14s. Gd. Westport-Stockton Coai shares aro offered at Bs., but buyers an disinclined to pay more than 7s. Nev Zealand Paper Mills shares are offers-' at 245., and Taranaki Petroleum at Hs Wellington Opera House shares con timie in demand at 45 10s. In mining scrip there was business recorded in Talismans at, 275. 3d., bu. the shares display a downward tendency, as the best bid obtainable yes tcrilay was' - - 2fis. 6d., while sellers wen willing to accept 275,, or 3d. below th niice at which the scrip changed ham! surlier iii the day. On Monday la; Talismans were sold at 475. Gd., wit buyers at the same price. Waihis ar offered at 4S 13s. 3d., or 9d. above Hi quotation of tho previous day, and 1: M. abovo the last sales. Kuranuis av offered at- Is. fid., and the shares hav a downward tendency at the momen - ! Smnc weeks back these shares had sharp advance from Bd. to Is. Bd., - lx cause it was thought that the compair had come upon tho famous Hunt Reei but withir. tho last few days tho share, have been drooping, from which i may be inferred that the reef has lit opened up to expectations. THE BANK RATE. It will be remembered that the Biinl of' England discount rate was raisw from 4 to tj per cent, on August I.' last. . In fixing upon a 10s. per cent, ad vancq, the Governor and Court of tilBank abandoned precedent, which hat beon to increase the rate 1 per colli, whenever an advance was made from *por cent. At the time the increase wai decided upon, money was plentiful, but, -according to mail advices, the changc 'was owing to the monetary situation oi: the Continent - and in New York, ami tlie anxiotv of Americian houses to placi finance bills in London, which waf taken to indicate possible gold shipments to New York in the near future. At the same time, the, hope was expressed in financial circles that the Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou would assist the New York market if Accessary. The cables advised us that •Mr. Cortelyou acted upon this suggestion, but whether the assistance rendered will bo effective has .yet to be proved. Tho next few days will furnish the test.

. THE AMERICAN SITUATION. There are great possibilities in tho New York financial outlook. When the last mail left, the position was causing much interest and concern, lor money on call, though in'plentiful supply, was ruling at as high, as 3 per cent., while time loans on good mixed Stock Exchange collateral were quoted at G per cent, for thirty, (U per cent, for sixty, and GJ to 7 per cent, for ninety days; five, and 7 per cent, for six months. Commercial paper was quoted at 6 to

Gjr per cent, for sixty to ninety-day endorsed bills receivable. As illustrating the stringency, it may bo mentioned that much difficulty was experienced with the issue of 4 per , cent. New York City bonds, which the city itself was not allowed by law to sell under par. They were offered, at public auction, and over the counter, but the sales were slow. In'the meanwhile, the city's creditors, mainly contractors, were obliged to accept the bonds in lieu of cash, or, rather, many elected to do so rather than wait, for the bonds to be sold by the city, and the securities so acquired were dumped on the markcl at a discount of 1 per cent. One authority, discussing the situation, said that it was generally admitted that in certain fundamental respects the financial situation was analogous to that of 1902. There has been too wholesale converlion of floating capital into fixed, though the process l>as been less spectacular than that of five years ago. .At that time an oxcessive amount- of money wa( locked up in propositions whose future was considered at least doubtful. There is far less distrust of tliat sort to-day. V vast amoiint of capital has in the last, year or two lost its fluidity by reason of absorption by great schemet /f public improvement, but there is 7ery little doubt regarding the futur; x'ofitablencss of these schemes. Syndicates have taken up huge blocks of x>nds for highly legitimate purposes, -.ml have found that the commercial .•ate for money has been too high tu ulmit of their immediate distribution. the broader, outlook as affecting thi ■grid's monetary situation, it is asked: 'Have the curses of war, and famine., ind earthquake, and'fire,, and rash e;;leriment in so-callcd' public improvements, of which recent years have beer =.) prolific, come home at last to roos! in tho money maikets?" ■ ,

COMPANY REPORTS. The brewery business of Arthur Guiltless, San, and Co., Limited, Dublin, is '. very profitable affair. For the yeai :sded June 30 loSt, the profit made oi' brewing totalled cE2,2(!9,035. But :delucting over .£1,0(10,000 paid in excise fe ;he British Government, the pet bal vuce was £1,178,230. Out of this .£200,001' vas carried to reserve for capital exlenditure, .£30,000 to depreciation, anc' C 170.000 was applied to writing down ill/estments. The/ordinary dividend war Increased to 25 per, cent. On August 15 the directors of the standard Oil Company declared a divilend of, G dollars per share for the Hiarter, making the dividend declaraion for the year to that date 30 dollars i share, the same as for the correspondng periods in the two past years. In. the ■nil year 190G the company paid 40 pe; Kiit., and in 1905 the same. Its higlies: : ecordcd dividend rate was 48 per cent in 1900 aßd 1901. COTTON. The United States are the chief sourlw ■f supply for cotton, and .notwithstanding high prices the growers believe tin' hey have not received a fair retir-ii. niddlemen and speculators securing the test of the bnrgairi. For two yean last efforts have been nlade in the Southern and Western' States to effect •„ combination of cotton farmers, with lartial success, but this year a much jotter organised movement is unde: <ay. The great difficulty in getting .the srmers to hold their cotton has beci lie lack of warehouse and storage failities at their disposal. Up till quite •ecently only one warehouse has beei ■wned exclusively by the farmers, bui t has been so successful that tlu stablishitient of many more is assured ■•ltd it is expected that such warehouse; all enable the farmers or their agent/ o sell directly to the spinners, anc" liminate. the middleman. To meet th: .ocessity for ready money which it i.kely to confront the cotton grower ho plan is to provide a loan at G per ent., with a mortgage on the storee ! •otton, instead of making .it necessary or the farmer to sell outright at r' ;gure lower than he would otherwise

'.live to accept. The Union is takin;nother advanced stop in Texas, in (hi •stablishment at some central poin' 'f a "cotton-school." A term of n\;ast two months is anticipated, wit; l irobably several hundred students ir .ttcndauce. Attention will bo giver o the securing of a strong faculty ft nntruct the farmers who attend. The fibre is not all that the cotto: '"armor turns to profitable account, foi ihc cotton seed is now; a good saleable '.tern. It was not so very, iong ago that '.otton seed was burnt to get rid of it* 'nit last year iio less than .1,500,000 tor.f vera bought; p.t a cost of aboiil 5t5.000..000, from the planters in thr lauihern States of America, thus add■iig practically 25 per cent, to the vnlu< ; n the way of the cotton crop. . This as been brought about principally through the-' cotton-seed oil industry. 3y an invention of comparatively recent times cotton oil is now freed from the old impurities which gave it rank odour." So-called olive oil, which roaches America from Southern Europe, carries a large perce.ntago of cotton-seer oil. Cotton-seed meal is used ir. America ,in making biscuits, pancakcs gingerbread, cakes of all kinds, and for various other purposes. The Uniter States Department of Agriculture say.* tiiat cotton-seed oil " is worth, for foot' purposes for animals, about dopble thr value of timothy hay; and cotton-seed meal, for the same purpose, is worth three and a third times as much as maize meal." About .£0,000,000 worth of cotton-seed oil is exported, and thai is only one-third of the product. Fifteen years ago 500,000 barrels of cottonseed oil were matte, which number was increased to over 3,000,000 barrels for tho past season. LONDON WOOL SALES. Messrs. Murray, Roberts, and Co. have received the following wool.market cablegram from their London house Messrs. Sanderson, Murray, and Co. dated Octobcr 1, 1907 Compared willi the closing rates of the last Londor sales, greasy merino, line greasy crorsbred, and crossbred slipe show an ad-

vance of 5 per cent. Superior scoured merino has advanced 10 per cont., and medium and faulty scoured merino shows an advance of 10 to 15 per cent. The market shows par to 5 per cent, decline for greasy crossbred coarse to medium. The market for merino is very firm. WOOL, SKINS, AND HIDES. (FROM OUR OWN CORItIiSI'ONDISNT.) WuKEnoA, October 2. Messrs. Swainson and Bevan, Lid., report having held a sale to-day, and the catalogue submitted comprised 28 fadges wool, !)00 sheepskins, 800 hides, and i casks of tal low. There was a good attendance of buyers, and the prices realised were as follow-:—Hides—Ox, Sd. to 5Jd.; cow, lid. to -l-Jd.; stags, 3§d.; calf, prime, GJd.; medium, Gj[; cut, 5d.; slippy, 2§;1.; yearlings, -lid. Sheepskins — Crossbreds, Sid.; hoggets, Bd.; dead, 7d. to 7W.; jambs' pelts, 7d.; green skins, os. Gd., 75., 7s. 6d. to lis. td. Wool—Crutchings, 5Jd. to 54d.; dead, Bd. Horsehair—ls. Jd. Horns, 7s. fld. per one hundred. Tallow, ,£24 ss. to <£24 10s. STOCK SALES. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Messrs. Abraham and Williams, Ltd., report as follows: — Notwithstanding the rough weather, stock came forward up to advertised numbers. In sheep, a fair yarding of all classes was offered, all lots selling at full rates. In cattlo, several pens of good quality beef—botli ox and cow—met with animated competition. The bidding at auction for store lines was irregular. Still, we effected a clearance before the closo of the sale. We quote: — Sheep, fat wethers, 245. Od. to 255. Gd.; fat ewes (best), 245. Gd.; others, 20s.' to 225.;' fat and forward ewes, 15s. 7d. to 18s.;, store ewes, 14s. 2d. to 155.; ■ hoggets (medium), 14s. 2d.; ewes, in lamb and with lamb it foot, lGs. 7d. to 20s. Cattle—Best fat, bullocks, Xf) 155.; others, d£B 195.; ; best cow beef, iiß lis.; other cow and heifer beef, .£7 7s. to £" 10s.; store cows, 2!)s. to <£2; empty heifers, 38s. to J2 55.; heifers in calf, i 2 15s. to JE3; twenty-months steers (medium), ,£2 2s. to £2 10s.; two to three-year steers, ,£1 2s. to .£4 9s. Pigs—Slips, 17s. 6d. Ddnedin, October 2. At the Burnside Stock Market to-day '2951 sheep were penned-rn large yarding of well-finished sheep, prices for which showed a decline of about Is. per head. Best wethers, 255. to 285.. ?d.; extras, 295.; medium to good, 21s. Gd. to 225. Gd.; inferior 18s. to 19s. Gd.; best ewes, 19s. to 21s. (id. Lambs— I There were 17 offered and sold up to 275. Pigs—About 100 yarded. Entry in nigs was a small one, and comprised mostly porkers and bacor.ers; there were no stores or slips offered. The sale of baconers showed an advance of about 2s. Gd. to os. per head; suckers, 15s. to 175.; porkers, 355. to 455.; light baconers, 455. to 585.; heavy baconers, 355. to Cattle—2l3 yarded, there being a fair yarding of medium quality. The prices obtained were much on a par with last week's values. Best, bullocks, .£lO to .£ll 10s.; extras, JB13; medium, .£8 to ,£9; best cows and heifers, c£B to £9. CimiSTCituRCH, October 2. ■At the Addington Live Stock Market to-day. there was a fair entry of sloek in the yards, and a moderate attendance. Fat cattle were firmer. Store sheep sold well and fat sheep were down towards the close of the sale. There was no cha'nge in pigs except that porkers were easier and there was :i rather better demand for store and dairy cattle. Store Sheep—There were only a few lots of store sheep sent ill, and they met with a keen demand. A line of 104 wethers made 215.; 83 hoggets sold at 17s. 4d., and a small lot of ewes and lambs, 9s. od., all counted. Fat Lambs—There were about'4o fat iambs penned, and they sold at 14s. to 395. Gd., competition not beipg,'; very active. Fat Sheep—There was a fair yarding of fat sheep .including several large lines of wethers from Southland. Following "the largo entry of last Week the demand" was not so active, and towards the close of the salo prices were much" easier, and a number of lines were withdrawn. The range of prices was; Extra prime wethers, to 325.; prime, 255. to litis.,' lighter, 20s. to 245.; hoggets, 17s. 3d. to 215.; prime ewes, 225. 6(1. to 225. Gd. Fat cattle.—The yarding of fat cattle totalled 197 head, of which, over half were from the North Island.' The bulk consisted of steers of good to ';>rime and extra prime quality. The demand was good and prices were. firmer. Steers brought JJG ss. to J!l3 17s. Gd; heifers, dCS 12s. Gd. to ,£9 12s. Sd.; and cows, .£4 10s. to £!) 55., equal to 30s. to 325. Gd. for extra prime, 255. to 28s. Gd. for prime, and 225. to 245. Gd. for medium, per 1001b. There was i large yarding of veal calves, and they -,old at 4s. to GOs., according to size ind quality. There was a large mixed ?ntry of store cattle, mostly in-poor condition, and though there were few "juyers there was a better enquiry. The dairy cows were a moderate lot, and. met with an • improved :lemand: Yearlings made lis. to 225. 6d: 15 to 18 months, 30s. to 425; two-year steers, ,£2 10s. to ,£3; two-year heifers. £2 18s; three-year steers, ,£4; four-year, £5 Ss. Gd.; three-year heifers, £2 15s. to £3; dry cows, 20s. to 305.; dairy cows, £3 10s. to £7.

Pigs.—There was a medium entry of pigs. nil elassse selling well except that porkers were not in such keen demand. Choppers sold up to £6; bacon,ers, £4 to £i 16s. for heavy; and' 555. 'to £3 10s. for lighters (equal to sd. to 51tl. per lb.); porkers, 38s. to 425. for large, and 345. to 375. for light (equal lo s}d. to SJd. per lb.); large stores, 30s. t0.385. 6d.; medium, 255. to 205.; small, sOs. to 215.; and weaners, 12s. Gd. to 19s. 6d.

Messrs. Abraham and Williams, Ltd.. Mid Messrs. Dalgety and Co., Ltd., held their usual fortnightly sale at Pahiatua in October 1, when the following irices were realised Forward cows, up Jo .£3; springing heifers, ,£3 to «£•!■ 55.; ;pringing cows, up to £7; 21-year-old steers, .£4 75.; 18-month steers, J!3 lis.: full mouth ewes in lamb and with lamb at foot brought from 15s. to 17s. I0d.; hoggets, 14s. to 14s. Bd.