Finance Stocks and Mining

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 229, 19 November 1904, Page 5

Finance Stocks and Mining

THE report of the dnectors of the Mosgiel Woollen Company, just issued, st ukes a discordant note, and one that will help to awake the people to the conditions prevailing The company winds up its year with a loss of £125G, after paying the half-yearly dividend of 3£ pei cent. This lor»s is met by transferring £2000 fiom the reserve fund, leaving £744 to be carried forward. There are various causes foi the adverse showing. The directors attribute it to the high cost of wool the keen competition of other milh, and increased importation of woollen goods and shoddy made-up clothing. » * * In point of fact, it is the high cost of production that is hurting this company as well as many another concern. Everything is high— high wages hwh raw material, and high competition— and the only remedy apparent to those concerned in. the woollen industry is a high tariff, so that the local production may carry higher prices. It is a rough and ready method of meeting the position, but it is neither scientific nor defensible. Woollen duties are veiy high now, and the retail prices of colonial woollen productions are more than the people can afford. The woollen mills must work back to the level of the spending power of the community. • • • The Mutual Benefit Building Society of Canteibuiy has expenenced a profitable time m the year ended' 30th September. The dividend declared is at the rate of 7 per cent per annum £300 has been added to the reseive fund, makins it £2200 and a, balance of £100 has been earned forward. The Commercial Property and Finance Company, of Dunedin, shows a net piofit of £1469 16s lOd for the year ended 30th September last and with the balance brought foiward, the total available is £1794 4s lid. Of thi* amount £1000 is reauired as a re-erve for bad and doubtful debts, and the balance, less £174 7s sd, is distributed in dividends. The directors hope to be able to pay dividends legularly. The profits of Dalgety and Co. Limited during the last financial yeai, amounted to £64,802, against £48,820 in the pievioufe year, showing an mciea^e of £15,977, or nearly 33^ pei cent The available balance wah £114,507, from which £10,000 was added to the reserve fund, and £50,000 paid away as dividend, leaving £55,507 to be carried forward. • • * Last year's profits, though showing a bubstantial increase over the previous year, fell very short of the earnings in 1902, when the profit was £84,848. Dalgety's is feeling the effects of the improved agricultural and pastoral outlook in the Commonwealth, and it would occasion no surmise if the lesults of the current year's trading show further substantial improvements. • • * The Colonial Sugar Company made a net profit of £105,107 for the half-year ended 30th September, as against £100,310 for the corresponding period of last yeai. The balance available for the past half-year was £198.928 18s, and a dividend at the rate of 10 per cent was declared, leaving £94,320 14s 2d to be earned forward. Somehow the earnings of the company are lust about equal to the amount of the dividend. The Colonial Suear Company has practically a monopoly of the local markets, and the duty on sugar is very helpful The price of sugar was recently advanced by 10s per ton. • » • The London money market showns a further hardening tendency, and this is more or less reflected in Australasia. State Governmental demands are operating m the direction of stnngency, and in this colony also there is a steady movement towards dearer money. Borrowers are finding it increasingly difficult to raise money, besides having to pay higher rates, while some of the institutions that accept deposits are offering as high as 5 percent. Dear money will tend to check trade, and bring values of commodities down to their proper level. • • * Shop property m the four big centres must decline m value, as the result of the compulsory early ©losing. The traders dependent upon the after-hours trade must inevitably experience a cuitailment of the turnover, and necessarily of profit. With a diminished income many must either give up business

oi make new airangemente involvmg a reduction, of expendituie, and rents muit be reduced. This will mean a lower valuation foi shop propeity, especially in the suburbs, and will, to a great extent, affect values of other real estate. The position that many tradeis now find themselves in is just aaiother lllusti ation of the dangers of hasty and illconsidered legislation. There will be a direct effect on the money market, too, foi merchants will be obliged! to restrict ciedat, in order to safeguard themselves. However, a few weeks will show the extent of the disturbance caused by this new effort of members of Parliament to play to the gallery. * * • The sharemarket is quiet, and, m a measure, reflects the state of the money market. Capitalists are looking for a better return than can be obtained from share investments at present prices, conseouently theie is a slackness of business. The tendency of the market is for a decline in values, although some stocks may keep firm, or even see an improvement. Bank shares are neglected. Theie are no buyers, and sellers are apparently tired of quoting their prices. In financial shaies, a sale of Wellington Trust and Loan (£lO paid) is reported at £14 os. National Mortgage sha'es are in demand, at 46s New Zealand a % id River Plate shares are offeied at 25s 3d. * # ♦ Gas shares are quiet, but that is because there aie no sellers. Shaies of almost all the companies aie leadilv saleable at cuirent rates There aie bids' of £4 15s for Ashbuiton Gas, and 22s for Feilding Gas. * « * Insmaaice shares are quiet, but prices aie unchanged. Nationals aie wanted at 23s 9d, and New Zealands are offered at 104s. The balance-sheet of this company is due shoitlv. Me*it shaies iemai.n at the old level of values, with busme-^ lestncted. Meat Expoits (£2 12s (xl paid) changed hands at £3 3s and Goais aie in demand at £6 los and £1 16s for the respective issues Canteibuiy Fiozen Meat shaies aie offeied at £8 10s and Chnstchurch Meat shaies at £10 10s * * * Woollen shaies aie ver\ much neglected, but sellers show no disposition to materially i educe their valuations Kaiapois are easiei. with sellei-s at £6 Is, and Wellington Woollens also exhibit a decline, with the soiling quotation at £4 19s. •)>■ * * In miwellnneous. theie is veiv little doing;. Ward and Co , Ltd , Biewery shares changed hands at £4 12s 6d and there are buyers of Leyland and OBi ien Timber shares at 40s- and Donaghv Rope and Twine at £12 lft> * ♦ * The mining maiket is languid, although a few sades aie reported on the Dunedin Exchange. It is getting on to the slack time in dredging, and very little business, can be expected to be done until about February or March next.