PROFIT IN SUGAR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 171, 3 May 1930, Page 6

PROFIT IN SUGAR.

THE COLONIAL COMPANY.

£445.336 FOR HALF-YEAR

(United Press Association —Copyright.)

,SYDNEY, May 2. The report of the . Colonial Sugar Refining Company, Limited, for the hall'-year ended March 31, discloses that‘profits during that period amounted to £445,336. . Tiie Board proposes to pay a dividend of 20 shillings and a bonus of five shillings » share, which will absorb £365,625. The balance of £79,711 will be added to the balance of the profit and loss account as at September 30 last, bringing the total to £490,488. From this sum the Board will place £160,000 to the reserve fund. The chairman (Mr E. W. Knox), at a meeting of shareholders to-day, said the company, like others, was. compelled to accept lower profits, but there were investments of the company which, fortunately, were not affected by fluctuations in the sugar market. He 'alluded to the increasing difficulty of finding a market for the output of sugar of British tropical countries, including Fiji, owing to the fact that the surplus sugar of other countries was being sold at a price well below the bare cost of production. It was not true that the Colonial Sugar Company was making undue profits which, in ‘fact, were smaller than before the war. Actually more than cne-fiftli of the profits went in taxes. He made passing reference to Hoods and the hurricane in Fiji and to the damage to plant and crops, and l stated that the new refinery at Perth was just commencing work. Its cost had gieatly exceeded the original estimate. ° The directors’ report stated that there was no evidence of an increased yoild consumption of sugar, while the output next season would probably fall short of that of 1929.

Both reports were adopted. Mr R. L. Faithfull was re-elected a director and Mr R. W % Gillespie was elected in place of Sir Norman Kater, who had resigned.