Finance Stocks and Mining.

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 109, 2 August 1902, Page 5

Finance Stocks and Mining.

The shaieholdeis of the Bank of New Zealand will leceive official announcement of the o per cent, dividend at the annual meeting, when it is expected that the chairman will deal fully with the affairs of the bank. The chief point of inteiesb to thei general taxpayer is the fact that the two millions guaranteed by the State will have to be met in November, 1904 and this will involve some fresh legislation w hich must be undertaken next year. Wool and flax continue depies&ed, and the outlook is not very promising. At the wool sales, just held m London, over 100,000 bales, or nearly half the total quantity offered, consisted of New Zealand-grown wool — mostly crossbred It is not surprising, with this vast ouantity offering, to learn that values have been depressed. English and American wool came into direct competition with our staple, and, as the European production is mostly crossbred, the pressure of excessive supplies has caused a fall in prices. • • • Wool growers become imbued with the idea that by delaying shipments, and w r aitmg for the third, fourth, and fifth series of sales, they would secure better prices, but the experience of the last sale falsifies these hopes. The next clip will, m consequence of this set back, be maiketed earlier and, as farmers are not unlike their flocks in