COLOSSAL FIGURE

Evening Star, Issue 23373, 16 September 1939, Page 10

COLOSSAL FIGURE

SOUTH AFRICA'S GOLD PRODUCTION NEARLY £100,000,000 IN VALUE To within a hare million pounds, the value of the Union of South Africa’s gold production last year reached the colossal figure of £100,000,000. The exact figure is £98,789,531, .which well exceeds the previous year’s record of £94.291,502. Payments for stores, wages, and salaries, of which the great bulk is paid out in the Union, amounted to £67,375,740 —an increase of £4,250,168. The number of Europeans directly employed rose to 53,131. or 3,000 more than in 1937, while the number of non-Europeans rose to 421,000 or about 11,000 more than in 1937. The salary and wages bill, amounted to just on £20.000,000 in respect of the European employees, and £14,000,000 in respect of the non-Europeans employed. These figures appear in the report of the Government mining engineer, who points to the continued expansion of the gold mining industry. NEW PRODUCTION RECORD. “ The total production of 12,161,392 fine ounces of gold in the Union during the year 1938 constitutes a new record and .exceeds by 426,818 fine ounces the previous record set up in 1937, he states. “ The most noteworthy feature in connection with this record production is that it has been achieved by a further reduction in the average yield per ton of ore treated, which is in accordance with the industry’s policy of lowering pay limits as the currency price of gold increases. Thus, whereas in 1932 the average yield per ton treated from large gold mines was 6.4(59 pennyweights, the average yield for 1937 decreased to 4.446 pennyweights ,and for the year under review was 4.323 pennyweights. ‘‘ New records were also established in the number of tons treated, in the number of persons employed, in salaries and wages paid and in the value of stores consumed. WOOL STOCKS NOT HEAVY IN GERMANY For the year ended May German imports of wool/from all sources were approximately equivalent to 1,050,300 hales, an increase of about 125,000 bales on the total for the preceding similar period. Apparently, says the latest review of Winchcombe, Carson Ltd., heavy stodks of the raw material have not been accumulated. Activity in the German mills has been brisk for her own internal trade, and for the first five months of this year her exports of yarns were more than twice the quantity exported in that period of 1938. Pric,r to 1914 Germany impoxded about 1,600,000 bales annually, but the quantity since has not reached that level. The reduction has been chiefly caused by the lesser quantities required because of the use of artificial fibres, but the loss of mills in Alsace-Lorraine after the Great War also decreased her requirements. Poland, though not one of the world’s great wool-using nations, is a fairly important consumer. Her imports in 1938 from all sources were about 167,000 bales, of which 33 per cent, was obtained in Australia. She imports yarns from various European countries, her largest purchases being made in Germany. She exports moderate quantities of woollen fabrics to China and other Eastern co ies and throughout Eurpe. The Poll; mill industry, therefore, has ramificn cions which exert a wide influence.

AUSTRALIAN STOCK EXCHANGES

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyngn

SYDNEY, September 15. Buying interest again covered a wide range of shares on the local Stock Exchange to-day, but the price variations were mostly of a minor nature. The undertone of the market was very

strong. £ s. d. Bank of New South Wales 27 3 6 Commercial Banking of 17 Sydney 0 0 Commercial iBank of Australia 0 14 4 Union Bank 6 14 0 Bank of Australasia (ex div.) 8 5 0 Colonial Sugar 44 15 0 Associated News ... 0 1C 3 Howard Smith ... 1 0 9 Huddart Parker 2 17 0 British Tobacco 2 7 0 Tooths 2 9 6 Tooheys 1 1 41 Coles 3 9 3 Wool worths 1 2 41 Woohvorths Properties (pref., ord.) 1 1 0 Woohvorths Properties (pref., ord., New Zealand delivery) 1 1 0 General Industries ...■ ... 0 17 6 Kandos 1 7 9 Mort’s Dock 0 15 6 Mort’s Dock (New Zealand delivery i ... 0 ]5 6 Newbold 1 7 9 Cash Orders ... _ 0 15 0 Cash Orders (New Zealand delivery) 0 15 0 Carpenter 2 0 9 Gordon and Gotch o 9 6 Standard Cement 1 1 0 Mark Foy 0 17 0 Goldsbrough. Mort 1 8 6 United Provisions 0 9 9 Millaquin Sugar 2 1 0 Electrolytic Zinc 9 15 6 Electrolytic Zinc (pref.) ... 2 16 6 Mount Lyell 1 10 6 Broken Hill Pty 3 8 0 Broken Hill Pty. (new consolidated) ... 0 17 3 South Broken Hill 1 8 9 Kuala Kampar t. 0 17 71 Emperor 0 9 10 Placer Development 3 12 3 MELBOURNE, September 15. £ s, d. Commercial Bank of Australia 0 14 6 National Bank (£5 paid) ... 5 11 0 E.S. and A. Bank 4 2 0 Carlton Brewery 3 5 6 Drug Houses 1 5 3 Dunlop Perdriau 0 17 9 British Tobacco (ex div.) 2 7 6 Cox Bros 0 9 6 Myers 1 7 0 Coles 3 9 6 ‘ Herald ’ and ‘ Times ’ ... 2 17 6 Electrolytic Zinc 2 16 6 Electrolytic Zinc (pref.) ... 2 16 6 Mount Lyell 1 10 9 Mount Morgan n 10 1 North 'Broken Hill 2 8 0 South Broken Hill ... ... 1 8 3