COMMERCIAL ITEMS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1411, 11 April 1912, Page 8

COMMERCIAL ITEMS.

STOCK EXCHANGE. The members of the Wellington Stock Exchange will resumo business this morning, after the Easter vacation. BRITISH AND FOREIGN MARINE. Premiums received by the British and Foreign Marine Insurance Company for the year 1911, after deducting returns, reinsurances, and foreign taxes, amounted to £471,58?, while the claims settled amounted to £130,022. Expenses absorbed £49,843, which left a balance of £291.733 to be. carried forward. The underwriting account, for 1910. now closed, left a profit of £57,061. while the interest, account for 1911 was £65.472. The combined figures are thus £122,533, which, with the balance brought forward, made tile amount to the credit of profit and loss £309,530. Dividends totalling 225. 6d. per share, equal to 28J per cent., wove paid for'the year, as against 25 per cent, for the previous year; and, after providing for dividend and income tax, a balance of £231,691 remained at credit of profit and loss account, as compared with £106,933 twelve months previously. The paid-up capital stands at £268,000, and the reserve fund, which is includcdtin the general invcstmjnts of the company, k still £1,000.000. WOOL IN RUSSIA. Official returns show that foreign wool finds an increasing market in Russia, and the opinion is expressed that in the future Russian mills will use imported wool mainly, seeing that in the central and southern parts of that country cereal growing is taking the place of sheep breeding, whilst the same chance may be noted to some extent in the Caucasus and the Siberian Steppes. It is estimated that the total diminution of flocks during the last decade was from 8,000,000 to S.CCC--000 head. The position of Russian farmers was this: they had to face the alternative of introducing modern methods into the old pastoral system, or of taking up a more remunerative branch of farming. Many chose the latter, and some have tried to carry on the ancient migratory pastoral system by transporting their flocks of sheep to the Siberian Steppes, but this is only putting off the final hour when the increasing colonisation of Siberia and Central Asia will drive them farther afield. "The true solution of the difficulty," writes an authority, "lies in the adoption of modern methods of breeding, with good slock for that purpose, and of giving as much attention to tho wool product as to the mutton." Russian sheep farmers are called upon, in fact, to remodel their processes, and as they do not seem eager to do so there should be splendid openings for foreign breeders capable of giving instruction as to the best modern methods of shoep raising, whilst there mar also be a. chance to sell first-class stock oil remunerative terms.

Customs duties collected at the port ol Wellington yesterday amounted to £2559 6s. lOd. LONDON SHARE QUOTATIONS. By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright . ~ j , London, April 9. Stock and share market quotations include:—Australian Mercantile, £100 10-.-Melbourne Gas, -£101. SCARCITT OF POTATOES. By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright „ , . Sydney, April 10. Potatoes arc scarce and dear. Bert Tasmanians are Quoted at £10 a ton." OIL AT GISBORNE. (By Tclegrapb.-Prcss Association.) Clsborne, April 10. Tho Gisborne Oil Company's bore at Waitangi Hill is producing three barrels a day at tho 655 ft. level.