NEW AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 235, 22 June 1918, Page 10

NEW AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIES

1 — ■' RAISING NECESSARY CAPITAL. The Acting-Prime Minister of tho Commonwealth is awaiting a reply from the British Government to n cable message dispatched by him recently, inquiring if it were a fact that restrictions of a financial nature were being placed on British manufacturers who weje desirous of establishing branches of their industries in the Com' monwealth. On the question of the weatioji of new industries, Mr. Watt remarked that in ■May last the Commonwealth Treasury consented to the registration of. a company which was being formed for the purpose of carrying on in Melbourne the operations of wool scouring, wool combing, weaving and spinning, and the manufacture of yarns generally, Tho capital was fixed'at .£150,000, of which ,£120,000 was to be subscribed in casli. Of the .£120,000 ensh capital ,£77,000 was to be found in Australia and .£43,000 by certain manufacturers of yarns in Great Britain. The ,£43,000 was to be expended in the purchase of machinery in, Great Britain. The British Treasury was asked about a month ago to permit the ,£43,000 to be raised in Great Britain, but no advice us to the result of, the application had yet beeu received. If the application had been refused, he considered the Commonwealth Government woald have been informed. ' Another proposition involving British capital was to establish in the Commonwealth the munufacture, mainly from Australian products, of white lead, various classes of paints, and lead and zinc products. Tho company was registered in Victoria, on May 28 with a capital of i 300,000. A cable message had been sent to the High Commissioner asking him to support the application to the British Treasury for permission to raise tho necessary capital, but no advice had been received as to the result of the application/ The Commonwealth Government had also sanctioned the proposed issue of additional capital by the Broken Hill Proprietary Co., Ltd.. to enable it to make provision for nn extoiision of its steel and iron enterprise at Newcastle. Authority was sought to increase the company's nominal capital I'rom ,£600,000 to ,€3,000,000, and its subscribed capital from ,£J72,M2 to ',£2,100,000. The British Treasury, on being approached, had consented to the company's frtiaroholders in Grrat Britain subscribing their (|tiota of the new issue, amounting to J430.0C0.