NEW ZEALAND LOAN AND MERCANTILE AGENCY COMPANY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 441, 29 January 1890, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND LOAN AND MERCANTILE AGENCY COMPANY.

DECLARATION OF DIVIDEND. Auckland, Jan. 24. Cable advices have been received to day from London announcing that, at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, the report showed a net profit of £96,752, from which a dividend of fen per cent, was declared ; a sum of £20,000, equivalent to the usual five per cent, bonus was added to the reserve fund, and a balance of £12,936 was carried forward.

These figures show that the gross profits of the past year were £14,600 more than during the year preceding. This is accounted for by the new capital paid up in 1888 having been fully utilised in 1889. But of course the extra earnings were absorbed in the larger amount required to cover the dividend. The determination of the directors to carry to reserve the amount which was available for the payment of the usual five per cent, bonus will be generally approved as a decision dictated by considerations of prudence. In view of the reduced earning power of money it is wise to strengthen the Company out of surplus profits rather than distribute every shilling earned. The balance carried forward is about the same as in the preceding year.

The Sydney papers contain further particulars of Mr Phil Beck’s death by his own hands. From a copy of the “Times of Ceylon ” they learn that shortly after the arrival of the B. I. steamer Pundua at Colombo on December 24th, Mr Beck, who was a passenger, shot himself through the head with a revolver. An inquest was held on the same day, and from the evidence given it appears that the deceased, after joining the ship at Brisbane, had been drinking rather heavily, and three days before the sad occurrence the captain of the vessel had given orders to limit the amount of liquor supplied to him. The unfortunate actor was' found dead in his cabin, lying on his back, his head resting against the washstand, and with a revolver in his right hand. There was a pistol wound in the right temple, above the right ear, and the bullet had passed through his head and out at the other temple. Only two shots were heard on board the ship, and it was thought that a ship was signalling in the harbour. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of death by suicide, finding that there was no evidence to show any reason for the act. Mr Beck was probably best known in Australia through his impersonation of Gaston Vandaloupe in his own dramatised version of Fergus Plume’s celebrated story, “ Madame Midas,” which he produced early last year, both at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Sydney, and the Alexandra Theatre, Melbourne. There are still unemployed meetings in Sydney. Messrs Finn and Reid, representing a number of unemployed persons, who have recently been assembling in the Domain and at the Queen’s Statue, had an interview with the Minister for Works the other day in reference to the ; Department providing them with ; .'U employment. In reply to inquiries, they stated that the number they represented was about 400, which included labourers, iron-workers, coal-miners, and painters, there being a strike in the painting trade at present. 1 Mr • Bruce Smith said that he could not promise immediate employment, but he had done what he could to expedite public works, ‘ ’