COMMERCIAL ITEMS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1338, 16 January 1912, Page 8

COMMERCIAL ITEMS.

INVESTMENT SHARES. The transactions in investment shares, which wore recorded yesterday, were Golden Boy Cement, at 235. and 235. 3d. The buying and -selling quotations were as under:— Buyers. Sellers. £ s. d. £ s. d. Bank New Zealand — 11 12 6 Equitable Building 10 5 0 Well. Investment 0 11 3 — Well. Trust and Loan ... 7 12 6 — Weil. Deposit — 0 8 0 Fcilding Gas — 13 0 Ohristchurch Meat 15 10 0 15 17 6 N.Z. Shipping —* 17 0 0 Taupiri Goal 110 — Leyland-O'Brien 18 9 — C. M. Banks, Ltd - 10 0 Golden Bay Cement 13 0 —■ N.Z. Drug — 2 1(T 0 Kharland'* preference — 1-16 Ward and Co 5 9 0 5 11-6

LONDON WOOL SALES. The first of the series of London wool sales for the current year will begin in Colcman Strcst to-day, and it will not bo until in the forenoon to-morrow before we can know the trend of the market. The new arrivals totalled 352.CC0 babs, and, out of this, 181.5C0 bales have been forwarded direct to manufacturer:-, leavins 170,500 bales, to which must be added 6GCO balls not offered at the December frlbs, and 4000 bales carried over, making 180,500 bales in all. The settlement of the woolcombers' strike, the nrospect that money will b? cheaper in the near future, and the probability that the Americans will operate to some extent arc factors calculated to help the market. The ISradford top marl\2t is firm, and yet the prices are lower than they were early in December. To-morrow, however, will put us in possession of the fa^ts. BANK FAILURES AND THEIR CAUSES. Th' 2 Rt. Hon. F. Huth Jackson m.idc pome interesting statements recently before the Institute of Bankers, London, on tho subject of ths recent bank failures— namely, that of the Birkbeck Bank and the Bank of' Egypt. He eaid: ."Can we find any reasons why these two institution. , ! wore coinpollcd to olotc their doors? I think we can. In the case of the Bank of Kgypt, the mistake wns that it had locked up .so much, of its money, and the estate. This was the mistake, you will remember, which brought all but three of tho Australian banks to grief iu 1893. It has 1)0211 said that a mortgage is not a banking security, and tlio experience of the Bank of Egypt is another instance of the truth of the statement. In tha case of the Birkbeck Bank, it, came to grief because it transgressed one cf the first principbs of deposit banking; it failed to draw sufficient distinction in regard to its investments, between the money which was its own—its capital and reserve—and the money which belonged to its depositors. But. you may say that all would have been well with the Birkbeck Bank had it not been for the serious and continuous decline in the pries of sill.first-class securities, especially Consols, True; but that is no justification-of its policy. It Is only an explanation of the chief cause that brought it to grief. Let ine add that thore'is no suggestion that cither of these banks was not honestly managed; their difficulties were due to the want of observance of the true principles of deposit banking." PAHAUTANUI SALE. , Messrs. Abraham and Williams report that at their sale held yesterday sheop came forward up to advertised numbers. The yarding consisted mostly of wethers, with a t;w pens of aged ewes. Sheen realised :-Good two-tooth wethers, lls-. 4d. to lls. 9d.; others, 10s. 6d. to lls.; culls, 95.; four-tooth wethers, 13s. 5d.; aged ewes, ss. 6d. to Bs. 6d.; forward lambs, 10s. Id.; store lambs,'Bs. 2d.; heifers in calf, £i 15s. to £4. Customs duty collected at the port of Wellington yesterday amounted to .€3321 Vs. 9(1.