COLONIAL SUGAR COMPANY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 291, 1 May 1913, Page 5

COLONIAL SUGAR COMPANY.

m» HALF-YEARLY REPORT. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 30, 8.40 p.m. Sydney, April 30. At the half-yearly; meeting of the Colonial Sugar Company, the report showed the net profits for Australia at £117,530, Fiji and New Zealand £116,000, to Which is to be added a balance of £203,673, making a total available of £437,203. A dividend at' the rate of 10 per cent, and the bonus absorbed £187,500, leaving £249,703 to be carried forward. On the whole, the summer has been favorable for the growth of cane, both in Australia and Fiji, but in Northern Queensland many farmers suffered considerable losses by floods. At present the yield of sugar is somewhat above the average. It is expected,, despite the very large increase in the world's production, both in the cane and beet sugar markets, that values will be well maintained. There has been no reduction in selling prices since last October, while the meltings at the refineries are larger than in any previous halfyear. The chairman stated that Ministers in the election campaign in vague terms alluded to some of the recommendations made in the Sugar Commission's, report, but nothing definite was said regarding their intentions in Cabinet. It was much easier to say that the Government should control the selling prices than to find means of doing so. The chairman mentioned the New Zealand case, in which a company was fined, but did not deal with the matter owing to a judgment in the appeal case not having been given.