COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ITEMS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9811, 21 August 1897, Page 7

COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ITEMS.

NEW ZEALAND EXPORTS

\" EXTRACT OP MEAT. c tra *&& P ast ' ye* l ' 9 business by Liebig's Extract of Meat Company "Hlted to £115,280. as against £99,105 Ntfotwywar. At th© annual _»•**

ing, the Chairman said this result was due to the fact that cattle prices were normat and the animals slaughtered in prime condition, thus giving a splendid yield, also because the by-products fetched reasonable prices. In 1865, the first year of the Company's existence, only 3194 head were slaughtered, At present some 200,000 head aro killed annually. The Company's total slaughter up to date since the start in 1865 amounts to about 5,000,000 head of cattie. Besides tho extensive p;tstnre3 which the Company rents in the River Plate, it owns some 165,000 acres of land there, and also possesses cona'derable freehold property iv Antwerp. Tho profit in 1865 vtus £1.8,437, and lust year £113,280. and from 1866 to thy. present time the total of tho dividends distributed to the shareholders amounts to over £2,000,000. The Company employs altogether about 20,000 handd, and its establishment at Fray B»nto* in the Argentine is quite a, town, with a finely equipped modern hospital, with a permanent medical man on tho premises, recreation room?, library, bilti&rd rooms, dining rooms, baths, schools for the children of tho work people and a band of forty musicians. A large proportion of the cattle killed by the Company are born and reared on its own cattle farm v thoroughbred bulls beinp continually being 3ent out to improve the quality of its herds. ANOTHER PROFITABLE CONCERN. For the ytar £2 per £5 share, or 40 per cent, per anmvm, is to be distributed by that diamond leviathan the De Beers Consolidated Mines. For the second half of the year it had been thought that probably a bonus would b« thrown in with the six months dividend of 20s per share. At the current quotation of say 29.J, the shares yield roughly 6 per cent, upon an invtvsfc' ment. The revenue for the iinanciai-^H^** l including the diamonds on hand, amounted' to £3,750,000, and tho expenditure to £1,351,000, bavi-g a profit of £ *»j£>9,ooo. '''his sum is exclusive of the amount carried forward in the last balance-sheet (£329,356), but is irrespective of a decrease in the stock of " blue •"' ground of abouc 500,000 loads. SCARCITY OF MEAT IN HOBART. According to a message published in Sydney on August 11th, there is a great scarcity of butchers' meat in Hobart, the local sapply being nearly exhausted. At the latest cattle sales held prices averaged 27y per hundred pounds weight, the animals being chiefly imported from New South Wales. For a long time past, says the Telegraph, the Tasmanian people have been preventing themselves from obtaining the cheapest possible meat supply. They have taxed imported beef and mutton at the rate of Is 6d per 1001b. In the interest of the local hog-breeder pork has been vetoed to the extent-of 10 per cent., while preserved meats have had to pay 12J per cent. Even the modest corned beef of the multitude could not enter a Tasmanian port save upon payment of la 6d per 1001b. This has for years caused the meat users of the colony to pay mora for their meat than was necessary, a fact which the majority of them were probably unaware of. Such experiences are common in countries which tax imports ofl tho chief necessaries of hfe. It is only when j a great shortage of some of them occasions a marked rise in price that the people begin to realise what has been happening to them all the time.

r yALCJES OF COMMODITIES. The Statist of June 12th quotes the following as the index numbers of the prices of forty-five commodities, the average of the eleven years, 1867-77, being 100 :— Average. Average. 1878-87 = 79 Dec. 1895 = 61.2 1887-96 „ 68 July 1896 „ 59.2 1880 „ 88 Dec. „ „ 62.0 1889 „ 72 Jan. 1897 „ 62.0 1893 „ 68 Feb. „ „ 61.9 1894 „ 63 March „ „ 61.9 1895 „ 62 April „ „ 61.5 1896 „ 61 May „ „ 61.2 The index number shows another slight reduction, as the tendency of the majority of articles was again weaker ; only metals and merino wool were a little better than in April. SOUTH AFRICAN CRASHES. It is impossible to forecast the trend of events in new countries, the capabilities of whioh are necessarily unknown or unproved, and it is therefore always prudent to regard great changes as temporary in character. The great prosperity of Australia in the early eighties was succeeded by the collapse of the early nineties, but what is next to follow cannot be conjectured. In this connection the striking experiences of South Africa, as illustrated by the article on '«The African Banks, before and after the discovery of gold," in the Economist of 19th June, may be studied with advantage. ..South Africa during the last sixteen years has undergone two great crises, one connected With diamonds, the other with gold, and on each occasion universal ruin appeared to be imminent. After the diamond crash of 1884 the total amount of deposits and current accounts held by the Banks rapidly declined until, in 1886, the total was only £8,147,239. A recovery set m, and by 1889 the total was Then followed, in 1890, a severe crisis, during which the three oldest Cape Banks (with unlimited liability) succumbed. Tbese disastrous failures caused tho passing of a Bank Act, which, in the opinion of the -Tgww, is the best extant, excelling the Canadian Act. Again, progress set in, and last year the total amount of deposits and current accounts was £28,179,671, showing an increase of over £20,000,000 since 1896. The Economist writes favourably regarding the position and prospects of the South African Banks, but their flourishing condition and their 16 per cent, dividends are attributable mainly to the Johannesburg gold mines. " MADE IN GERMANY "—A GERMAN VIEW. In an ab?e and interesting report to the Foreign Office, Consul-General Sir Charles Oppenheimer quotes the following from a statement mode by a German Chamber of Commerce :—" We must seriously caution people from taking for granted the exagfjerated descriptions so widely ventilated of ate in England, as if Germany's fcommerce and iudustry were about to oust English commerce everywhere in the world's market. Germany has undoubtedly with referenceto exports gained ground in comparison with England and France, but only slowly, and with regard to former years, e.g., the seventies, at a slower rate, and England, aotwrtkgtanriing its much smaller pop_U-

tion, is in advance by almost one-third. Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow are still the first business centres of Europe, the productions of which also the German oversea trade cannot altogether do without. Great Britain, in the extent of her ship-buiiding and shipping, the development of her railway traffic, the conditions of dwellings in her great cities, is still far ahead of Germany, and with its colonies, which embrace almost one-half of the civilised world, has an immense field of output, in which we participate in a very small degree. We- should therefore be cautious of Chauvinistic over-estimation of onr competitor, but, on Uhj contrary, the German industry must also in future exert all its energies in order to make further progress." This is quite refreshing, and it may well be set against some of the exaggerated statements in regard to German competition which have found currency in Great Britaiu. It should not be forgotten that Germany has a population of 55,000.000 as against 32,000,000 in England, and that the standard of industrial living in England is much higher. German manufacturing industries, too, it should be noted, may sustain a severe blow from the agrarian agitation.

A NEW POWER. Professor Ttipler claims that he has discovered a new power, which will revolutionise our present modes of transportation and manufacturing. This new power is liquefied air. He states that the air, when liquefied, is at a temperature of 450deg below zero on the Fahrenheit scale. At 210deg F. below zero it vapourises, and it is from the expansion consequent upon this vapourisation that Professor Triplet- obtains his "power," which is transmitted through an engine exactly as the power generated by steam from boiling water ■ft transmitted. It is possible, however, •ha declares, to obtain a pressure of 20001b to the square inch ».fc a temperature of 200deg. below zero, and at practically no cost from liquefied air, while to obtain 1501b of steam, a temperature ot 360deq. above zero is required, and the consumption of large quantities of coal. It will be seen that if the professor's contention be true, all our present ideas about transportation aud manufacturing must be re-adjusted. But the most remarkable feature about tho discovery remains yet to be told. The professor declares that his liquefied air in boiling absorbs the heating in the surrounding air so rapidly that it in turn is liquefied, and flows into the reservoir, which in this manner is always kept supplied. That is to say, once the apparatus is charged with a supply of liquefied air it feeds itself, and will practically run for ever without any cost for fuel.

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