Commerce, Mining, & Finance

Evening Star, Issue 22142, 24 September 1935, Page 7

Commerce, Mining, & Finance

AUSTRALIAN STOCK EXCHANGES

Press Association—B.v Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY, September 23. Nervous selling, on the part of some holders t and a hesitant attitude by buyers caused a further general mark.ing down in investment values on the Stock Exchange to-day. The turnover was also much below normal. AFTERNOON SALES.

SYDNEY WOOL SALES DEMAND (MOD BUT PRICES LOWER Frcsi Association—By Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY, September 23. The wool sales were resumed, and 11,551 hales were offered, 10,489 being sold, .while 1,428 were disposed of privately. Prices compared with those, at the close of the last Sydney series were 5 to 7i per cent, lower. There was a' strong general dmand for all descriptions, and greasy merino made 20i-d.

THE COMPANY-FLOATING INDUSTRY

A significant fact in British industrv is revealed by the announcement that the office of the Registrar of Companies is to be transferred from Somerset House to Bush House, Strand, says the ‘Daily Telegraph.’ So great has blen the increase'idhring the past three years in the number of new joint stock companies that there is no longer sufficient space at Somerset House for their records. The files .weigh 850 tons and occupy SJ, milts of racking space. Public inspection. of such files has become an important item in the country’s business.

The file of each, company contains its original registration papers, its annual returns, its register of mortgages, and many other documents. The information contained in them is frequently of vital importance to actual or potential investors or creditors and to others, and decisions involving ■ thousands of pounds may easily hang on the results of an inspection. ,

Any member of the public mav Inspect a file on. payment of a shilling, and hundreds of searchers exercise their right daily. The average .number of inspections per day is 875, as compared with 155 in 1900. The number of files consulted in 1900 was 35,678. and in 1934 251,668. In 1900 the old search, room accommodated 15 members of the .public. In 1934 the present search room at Somerset House was, enlarged to seat 104, and has already proved too small. An idea of the growth- of the joint stock system is afforded by the fact that the 100,000 th company was incorporated in 1908, the 200,000 th in 1924, and the 300,000 th in the present year. In 1863 about 5,000 documents were sent in for registration. In 1900 there were 67,000, and now the number sent in annually exceeds 300,000. Each year a further ‘2,640ft of shelving is required to accommodate new documents, “Dead” files have to be preserved for reference, but part of the present storage space at Somerset House is being reserved for these. A “ Methuselah ” among companies is the Thornbury das Light and Coke Company Ltd., which was the fifth limited liability company to be registered m August, 1855. ■ The work of transferring the files to Bush House will occupy the entire mechanical staff of the Registry.

MOUNT MORGAN LIMITED , A . PRODUCTION STATEMENT Mount Morgan Ltd. has 'advised th» New Zealand Stock Exchange Association the production report for four weeks ended September 18 is as follows: —Ore quarried, 21,439 tons; concentrator treated 21,370 tons, assaying 3.B3dwt gold, .75 per cent, copper; concentrates produced G 99 tons, v containing 2,5030 z gdd, 140 tons copper; in addition, precipitates produced 3 tons estimated to contain 2 tons of copper. Total production: 2,5030 zof gold, 142 tons of copper.

ITALY’S FOREIGN CREDITS

LIMITED RESOURCES AVAILABLE FINANCE FOR A CAMPAIGN Even a casual study of the history of Italian finance's during tho last eight years makes it abundantly clear that the doubt expressed by the financial editor of the ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ of the ability of Italy to finance a long campaign is well founded. The financial resources of the country uro severely limited, and foreign creditors have more than once lately shown that they are inclined to be restive. Italy' returned to the gold standard in 1927 with lire at 92.46 to £l, and ever since that time currency problems have imposed a severe strain on the economic structure of the country. At this price the gold value of the lira was considerably higher than the gold value placed on the franc at the time, and a long period of deflation sec in. Britain’s departure from the gold standard in 1931 made an already uncomfortable position more acute, and in the last three years or’so various expedients have been tried to meet the pressure of this over-valued currency, among them exchange restrictions, import quotas, the prohibition of exports of capital, bartering agreements, and the assumption of foreign balances and other privately-held funds. Internally there was more employment, greater production, and higher r’ates of interest, all founded on the artificial bolstering of tho currency. BUDGET DEFICITS. Italy has been faced with a surplus of imports and with mounting Budget deficits which totalled’about £260,000,000 in the last four years. According to a recent statement by the Italian Treasury, the liabilities of the Government at June 30, 1934, were equal to £2,500,000,000 sterling. A change of policy was introduced when flight of capital from Italy assumed large proportions, and import and exchange restrictions were built up, under cover of which prices were encouraged to rise. Not only has Italy prohibited transfer of capital from the country, but she also mobilised all foreign exchange held, and permitted imports only under license. • Tho struggle in the last few months has been’ a struggle for credit overseas. Italy has small coal and metal resources, and her import requirements are heavy. The 40 per cent, statutory cover of gold for the note issue was suspended in July, and an official statement was issued that the suspension was designed to facilitate payment of arrears of debts abroad which were not covered by clearing agreements. The amount of gold released by the decree was about £8,000,000 sterling, and this may not go very far in liquidating debts and providing for future payments abroad. Since March Italy has had a trade clearing agreement with Great Britain by which imports of British goods by Italy are paid for by funds set aside from proceeds of Italian exports to Britain. These clearing debts are assumed to be self-liquidating, as in theory Italy will be able to balance the value of goods imported from Britain by the value of Italian exports to Britain. In practice a considerable sum has accumulated awaiting transfer from lire to sterling, and British exporters of coal have become restive at the delay in\settling debts. In July the clearing agreement was amended to provide that proceeds of all bills of exchange for Italian exports.to buyers in Great Britain must be paid into the Bank of England for tho credit of the exchange clearing fund. HAW MATERIALS. At the end of July the Italian Government decreed a Government monopoly of tho purchase of certain raw materials from abroad. Materials included in the plan are coal, coke, copper, nickel, and tin. The monopoly plan was designed to prevent too great a rise in internal prices of essential raw materials. .Limitation of imports gave too great an opportunity for those receiving imports to raise prices internally, and the Government monopoly will enable closer supervision of • price levels. If Italy wishes to obtain foreign credits for war purposes she will experience great difficulty, as her resources are being strained to meet the demands of preparation for war. Purchase of ships, coal, and metals has almost exhausted Italian credits abroad, although- all foreign exchange and gold reserves have been pressed into service. Financing for a long campaign would present very real difficulties, which evidently have not been under-estimated by the Italian Government.

THE SEARCH FOR GOLD OKARITO REPORT _ The four-weekly report of the operations of the Okarito Five-mile Booth Gold Dredging Company Ltd. for the period from August 11 to September 7 states-Total gold won,'ll9oz 19dwt; total time worked, 4743 hours; total non-working time, 10H hours; total yardage treated, 25,830 (an average of 55 cubic yai'ds per hour) ; average value of ground (on basis of gold worth £4 per ounce), 4.4 pence per cubic yard. GILLESPIE'S BEACH DREDGE The secretary of Gillespie’s Beach Gold Dredging Company Ltd. (Mr F. R. Thompson) reports that the wash-up for the week ended September 21 was 470 z 3dwt for 134 J hours. WAIMUMU RETURN The VVaimunui Sluicing Company's return was 420 z 12dwt. A three weeks’ paddock of 6,000 cubic yards has yielded 85oz 17dwt. Some 2,oooyds of old tailings are also being removed.— Gore Press Association. PRICE OF GOLD Press Asocial ion —By Telegraph —Copyright LONDON, September 23. (Received September 24, at noon.) The price of gold is quoted at £7 Is Cd.

£ s. d. Commercial Bank of Sj^clney 17 16 0 Colonial Sugar 43 0 0 United Insurance -VZ 1U 0 Automatic Totes 0 ID 3 0 Burns, Philp South Sea l 8 Australian Gas (A) ... 7 1U 0 British Tobacco 1 17 9 Tooths ... Li rz 0 Tooheys 1 8 o 6 Beard Watson 0 17 11. Fowler U JJ 9 Australian Gypsum ... 0 15 0 Marcus Clark U 0 Mark Foy U 18 0 Sargeants 1 U 0 ,7. , Steelman 0 16 b Drug Houses ■ 1 8 9 Dudlop Perdriau 0 14 6 Farmers 1 6 9 Anthony Hordern Amalgamated Textiles 0 0 17 D 9 9 Lustre ... 1 6 6 Mount Morgan 1 16 0 Broken' Hill Proprietary 3 2 6 North Broken Hill ... . 7 5 0 New Occidental Gold 0 12 11 Mount Kasi ... ... ... 1 0 0 Mount Paris Tin 0 4 3 Totola 0 7 6 Mineral Development 0 6 0 MELBOURNE, September 23. G. J. Coles ... 3 5 0 * Herald-Times ' o 18 6 Metropolitan Gas 14 0 0 Mount Lyell 0 18 6 Enterprise 5 10 0 Lolorna ... - ... ... ... 0 0 Emperor 1 6 6 New Morobe ... ... i 14 0 0