COMMERCIAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 97, 17 January 1918, Page 8

COMMERCIAL ITEMS

I INVESTMENT SHAKES j Yesterday's quotations for iuvestment i shares were as follow:—

Customs duty collected at the port of Wellington yesterday amounted to £2906 193. „ COMPANIES IS N.S.W. During 1917 company registrations in New South Wales numbored 162, of which 164 woro of limited liability, the aggregate authorised capital being £5,794,267, ill addition to which existing companies woro furnished with new capital to tho amount of £480,000, malting tho total of new funds £6 274,267 as oompared with £5,069,575 in 1916. Tho sum for last year, although greater than that for 1916, fell, substantially below the £16,549,147 recorded in 1913. Thcro wore at tho same time 102 company linuidations, ae against 137 in 1916, 127 in 1915. and 141 in 1914. No fewer than 44 additional foreign companies were registered during the year last completed. BANKS IN INDIA. Including head offices and branches there ire in India about 354 banks, or little more than one to every million of tho population. Banking facilities, consequently. are extremely limited, and cannot be regarded as adequate to financo .properly tho trade of tho country, "whilst the financing of industries has not yet entered! as a practical possibility into bankcrs' calculations. Official figures indicate— and stronger, proof of the country s «e----ficicncics in this connection need not bo sought—that tho capital and reserves of India's banking system are only £12.000,000, as compared with £105,000,000 in tho ca-sc of the United Kingdom, and £23.000,000 odd in Australia, with its population of less than 5,000,000. Deposits amount to £w,0U0,000. as against £1.029,000,000. Deposits per thousand of population work out at £199. as compared, with £22,759, and per £1000 of trade at ££56 to £771. It is urged, t-Uoroforo, that the commercial hanks op institutions of similar type are confronted with the enormous task of endowing the country with facilities sufficient for'tho estimated needs of a further 200X00,000 people. In the last two years the absence of more comprehensive banking machinery has put a Kovcre.strain upon the financial and currency systems.

Buyers Sellers. £ a. tl. £ s. (1. National Bank 5 4 C — Bank N.Z. (old) 12 2 0 - Bank N.Z. (new) 17 2 6 - National Mortgage 3 17 6 — N.Z. and River Plate ... 117 6 — National Insurance 2 18 6 — S.B. Insurance 514 0 — N.Z. Insurance 6 10 — N,Z. Refrigerating 1910 0 — Auckland Trama (ord.)... 10 6 — Union Steam (pref.) 110 — Kaiapoi Woollen (ord.) ... 6 15 0 — Well. Woollen (ord.) 6 15 0 — Well. Woollen (pref.) 4 2 0 - WeBtport Coal 110 0 — WoBtport-Stockton 0 9 0 — Taringamutu Totara ... — 15 0 N.Z. Paper Mills 0 18 6 — Sharland's (ord.) 17 6 —