COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ITEMS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10269, 11 February 1899, Page 7

COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ITEMS.

THE "TRUST" SYSTEM. The spread of the "trust" system in the United States is most remarkable, and, it seems now to be regarded as the future for all trades. In a single issue of the "New York Commercial" the following combinations are mentioned as having been effected; or on the eve of being completed ; the Canned Goods Trust, a Corset Trust, the Spool Silk Trust, Straw Board Trust, Cedar Shingle Trust and Flint Bottle Trust. These, howeVer, only represent one day's announcements, adding to the already enormous number of trusts previously formed. BRITISH GAS COMPANIES. In 1897 the gas works of the United Kingdom used 12,613,153 tons of coal, made 132,692,735,000 cubic feet of gas (equal to 10,518 feet of gas per ton), and supplied 3,025.3'iVS consumers. This showed about the usual expansion. The capital embarked by the gas companies was £51,260,194, -and by corporations £27,376,324. The corporations, after paying interest- on borrowed money, earned a surplus of £554,014, or fully another 2 per cent., while the com-N panics' profits were £3,524,748, or 6.8 per_| cent, over their entire share and loan capital. Their dividends to the ordinary shareholders were, of course, considerably higher. CYCLES IN FRANCE. The fact that in France there is a tax on cycles makes it easy to collect statistics as to the number of machines in the country The latest return, going down to the end of 1897, shows • that there were then 408,869, pneumatic-tyred cycles in the country, ar ! compared with 203,000 in 1894. The increase has thus been very rapid. The Treasury benefits to the extent of £162,000 a year by the rage for cycling—a sum which will no doubt increase steadily. Naturally, the department of the Seine'contains the largest number of machines—nearly 80,000 —while equally naturally tha mountainous departments have the fewest. Thus in the Hautes Alpes there, are only 386 cycles, while Corsica comes at the bottom of the list with 133. GERMAN -BEER. % Complaints are made that the export trade in German light bears appears to be gradually dying out. To Great Britain they were never sent in large quantities for consumption : mostly they were transhipped at English ports to other countries, and the drop fijcwn 1,100,000 gallons in»1880, to 120,842 gallons last ytear in the return of exports to the United Kingdom is mainly accounted for by the development of direct steam communication between oversea countries during the past ten years. But ever since 1889 the whole quantity of beer shipped away by sea from Hamburg has fallen from 4,159,000 to 3,785,000 sallons a year, and its value from £784,000 to £438,000. The Australian demand has, it seems, been >cry largely reduced owing to the local breweries giving their attention to makinir lager biers of a quality that effectually shuts out the German product. PETROLEUM FROM BURMAH. Reference has recently been made, says the "Age," to the proposals to op3n up the Australian markets for kerosene shipments from British Borrow. The oil busman it

one that yields such large profits that it :s fairly certain that something in the direction mentioned will be done. Burmah. it seems, is also attracting notice. The "Pioneer," recently referring to the oil fields of that new appendage of the British Crown, says- — "The petroleum industry in Burmah in recent years has undergone a quite remarkable development, the figures showing last year a production of nearly 19,000,000 gallons—an increase of 27 per cent, on the return of 1896 and of 46 per cent, on the average of three years. There is no indication wuatever of approaching exhaustion in the oil fields; on the contrary, the flow of oil is so extraordinarily abundant that the wells at times overflow before the oil can be taken away. Few Indian companies have had profits in recent years equalling those of the liiumah Oil Company." Petroleum, it is claimed, is to figure largely in the future as a substitute for coal and steamer purposes. Already a* successful voyage has been made by one vessel especially*fitted to use petroleum for fuel, with results*highly satisfactory. It is claimed that the saving of labour and space by its use will tend to revolutionise at no very distant date the oversea steamer service of the ■world, whilst it is further assarted that no danger need be apprehended in properly fitted vessels by its use. INCREASING SETTLEMENT IN WEST AUSTRALIA. From figures which have recently become available, it appears that a considerable extension of settlement has of late taken place in West Australia During the first nine months of last year 1371 selections, covering 223.315 acres, were taken under the Conditional Purchase Clauses; 214 free farms, comprising 32,236 acres, practically all by new settlers'; 62.970 acres under homestead lease; 5,374,551 acres under pastoral lease; 395.237 acres under timber license. Including sundry classes, the total number of approved applications was 1978, covering 6,103,491 acres, or more than a million acres in excess of the business of the first nine months of 1897, which was regarded as a phenomenal year. There are 6,243,081 acres alienated in the colony; 1,298,926 acres are held under conditional purchase, free farms, &c. ; acres as homestead leases; over a million acres under timber license; and 92,000,000 acres under pastoral lease. The total area under crop in 1897-98 was 133,182 acres, against 111,738 acres in 1896-97 • and the total area of arable land —cultivated, cleared, fallow, &c.—at the end Of last season was 270,525 acres, or an increase of 107,236 acres over the previous season. The area under wheat was 38,705 acres, yielding an average of 10.56 bushels per acre. Maize yielded 19.84 bushels; oats, 17.44 bushels; barley, 13.83 bushels ; hay, 0.93 tons; potatoes, 3.14 tons ; and onions, 2.80 tons per acre. The total yields for 1897-98 were as follows: —Wheat, 408,595 bushels: barley, 23,423 bushels; oats, 29,266 bushels; maize, 4826 bushels; potatoes, 4720 tons; hay, 75.464 tons.