COMMERCIAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 304, 12 September 1918, Page 8

COMMERCIAL ITEMS

INVESTMENT SHAKES. ■ Yesterday's Quotations for investment shares '-ivere as follow:— Buyers Sellers. £ s. d. £ s. d. Commercial Bank (pref.) 610 0 — National Bank ' — 6 7 6 Bank JST.Z. (old) 13 2 0 Bank N.Z. (new) 18 0 0 — Union Bank -\SB 10 0 /' — Equitable Building 90 0 / —■■ , Metropolitan Building -.11 0 0 — National Mortgage 4 4 6 — N.Z. and' River Plate ... 118 0 . — Well. Investment 0 10 6 011 0 Well. Gas (pref.) — 0 18 6 National 1 Insurance 3 2 0 3 3 6 S.B. Insurance 6 6 0 — Meat Export (625. 6d.) ... 2 7 6, — Huftdart-Parlier. (ord.) ... 2 4 6 2 5 o Huddart-Parker (pref.) ... 1 .0 9 P. and O. Dcf. Stock ... — 407 0 0 Kaiapoi Woollen (ord.) ... 7 7 0 — Weil. Woollen i(pref.) ... 411 0 Taupiri Coal. I — 10 6 ■ Westport Coc.l, ! 110 3 — Waipa Colliery' — 0 16 3 Kauri Timber (335.) 19 0' 111 0 Leyland-O'Brien 17 0 — Colonial .Sugar (Fiji) ... — 20 12 6 Crown Brewery 19 0 — D.I.C. Preference 10 0 — Golden Bay Cement — 10 6 Manning and Co — 3 10 ff.Z. Drug ......213 6 — ■ Ward and Co — 6 0 0 Well. Cordaee •••• — 1' 1. 9 j Customs duties 'collected at the port of Wellington yesterday amounted to £4113 15s. 3d. ' • . ' . ' INFLATED CURRENCY. While admitting that inflation of currency and circulating credit has some advantages, a writer in the "American Economic Review" points out this feature:--"Inflation creates a dangerous optimism in the, financing'of the war, for it lulls the public, and often the authorities themselves, into the belief that it is 'getting the necessary wherewithal for that, purpose more easily than it really iB. If the circulating media be inflated sufficiently doubtless any loan can be floated. The money, of course, 'is only a means to an end, and if in securing what was originally thought to. be the means, the .prices of things that are wanted by the Government are raised, their buying power is reduced. Thus, it is contended, that what appeared to be >a 'successful flotation' is in reality a failure. Such a delusion will be an obstacle in the way of those drastic economies aud 'speeding up of production that are so urgently needed." COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS. Conditions existent lu commercial circles are by no meaus encouraging, says the Melbourne'"Argus."' Trado is hampered to a large extent by Government intervention, and there is a growing resentment at the haphazard methods employed. Merchants have considerably curtailed orders abroad, not only on account of the high cost of goods at sources of origin, but owing to the ideas of the Government in regard to the limitation of trading profits. The position has also been r-igravated by the issue of the r,ew Customs regulations rationing imports. This, however, may be rectified, to a certain extent. Thus it will be seen that the general 1 ' turnover is growing less and less, and some traders l'ear tho necessity for reducing, working expenses by dispensing . with a member of employees. This is to be / regretted, but if trade is discouraged by "the rulers of the country, merchants and manufacturers are not to blame. / ~ NEED- FOR EFFICIENCY. The war i 3 proving every day that there is no limit to the need for efficiency for .the purpose of winning, the struggle. 'Take for instance the Question of coal in the United States. The "Anthracite News" stntes that more than 50 per cent, of the entire railroad traffic consists in the hauling of coal. Ono week's movement of coal is a job equal in size to shifting the entire American wheat crop. It is said that millions of tons of coal arc wasted yearly by the industrial concerns of tho country, because of their antiquated boilers and fire-boxes. It is estimated that a yearly saving of nearly 40,000,000 tons could be effected by the introduction of improvements in this line. It would bo interesting to hear what tho coal owners would say if an anti-coal waste campaign were started, resulting in 40,000.000 tons being doducted from their sales during the next twelve months. JAPAN'S SHIPPING PROFITS. ' ' According to "Fairplay" '<A July 4, "the sale was reported of a ste:<mer of 8500 tons deadweight, building by tho Mitsubishi Dockyard Company for October | delivery, at £82 10s. per ton. Even this price would appear to he under that now current, •judging by t.be fact that a well-known Japanese shipping company has been offered a 9000-ton steamer,' at about ten knots speed and ready for delivery, at a price which works out at £110 per ton 'deadweight. To give nearly a million pounds sterling for a steamer which I',?foro the war could have been purchased for about £70,000 aflords some indication of the enormous profits which sonio Japanese hope to malic." CANTERBURY FARMERS' CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION. By Telegraph—Press Association. , Tlmaru, September 11. -The,balance-shcet of thn Canterbury Farmers' Co-operative Association, to be submitted at the annual meeting, shows a profit for the year of £27,503. The directors recommend the usual discounts on purchases, and dividends of 6 per cent, oij preference, and 7} per cent, on ordinary shares, free of income tax.