GRAIN AND PRODUCE MARKETS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27736, 13 August 1955, Page 8

GRAIN AND PRODUCE MARKETS

AUSTRALIAN OUTLET For POTATOES UNLIKELY (By Our Commercial JZditor.) Hopes of a market tor New potatoes in Australia seem to,be receding. Earlier reports of ing in Sydney at £(A.)SO to goPJ?I- - seemed to indicate that ther*™ 01 in th. ConUS 1 wealth, but recent reports reaching Ye. Zealand indicate that the high oricef due to seasonal conditions and difficulties rather than an actual shlH? 4 of Australian potatoes. Now, as supplies from Tasmania becoming to hand and Victorian grower. . increasing their supplies to the prices are moving downwards. A 1-te m port from Australia indicates that may be a surplus of local potatoes All this is bad news for the potato u dustry in New Zealand, as it is that there may be a fairly surplus of potatoes locally. aole Small Seeds Inactive The small seed market remains do. mant. The tightening up of credit hL put speculation out of the market, nd the trade is in the meantime content hold existing stocks and await orders. An odd order has been received for soring sowings, but this business has not w started in earnest and orders from th. North Island have yet to come to hand Oversees buyers are still keeping off X market on account of the high dHcm quoted. The outcome of the English har vests is keenly awaited, for if British plies fall short of requirements soX orders may be expected next month or October so that the seed will reach th. United Kingdom in time for autumn sowings. Like English and Continental buyers the Australian trade has also been frirht ened by high New Zealand prices »nd to now looking to other sources for its stm. plies. In Italy and Northern France tralia has found a cheaper source of red clover. The following prices to farmers an merely nominal, as no business is place:— Wheat.—lls 6d a bushel (on rail gm*, ers’ nearest siding), with the usual variety increments, plus the maafthr holding increments. Ryegras (M.D.).—Certified peremriii mother seed, 44s a bushel; pp., 42s fcr uncertified, 355. Hl: mother. 395; sUn’ dard, 38s; uncertified, 365. Italian: mother 40s; uncertified, 32s 6d-r-all subject ta 96/90 minimum. . White Clover (MJ).)/-Mother. 5s Id ner lb; p.p., 5s 8d; uncertified, 5s sd. Red Clover (Cowgrass).—M.D. new cna seed, 4s 6d per lb, 96/90. Cocksfoot.—2s fid per lb (nominal) tot good quality farmers* dressed seed. Oats.—Gartons, Ils to Ils 6d a bushel; Algerians, Ils to 12s a bushel; Duns, Ua a bushel; and Black, 12s a bushel. All prices nominal. Chaff.—£2o a ton on trucks, sacks extra. Onions.—£2o a ton on trucks, bun extra. Browntop.—4s 3d per lb, certified; ua. certified, 4s. Partridge Peas.—No. 1,16 s fid a budnl; La.q., 15s fid a bushel (nominal).

COMPANY NEWS

LANE, WALKER, RUDKIN SALES EXCEED £3,000,000. Net profit of Lane, Walker, Rudkin. Ltd., feu by £5464 to £90,115 in ths rwr ended June 19, though sales expanded by £288,913 to £3,025,836. The profit was struck after allowing for taxation and £87,379 for or. dinary and special depreciation. The report states that provision for ordinaty and special depreciation on new building and equipment has resulted in an increase of £25,000 in total depredation. This increased provision has tended to offset the benefit derived from the increase in turnover. With £49,623 brought forward and a £139 increase in the surrender value <rf life insurance policies, less £3 under* provision for taxation, the sum ot £139,674 is available. The sum of £24.000 was transferred to the holding company in December, 1954. and £5OOO is allowed for the preference dividend. From the balance general reserve receives £30.0C0 and the holding company receives £30,000. The carry-forward is £50,874. The latest transfer to general reserve brings the company’s total reserves up te £540.874, compared with a paid-up cipiUi of £300,000. The balance-sheet shows that the bank overdraft has risen from £74.415 to £163.061. Fixed assets have risen from £377,772 to £478,813, and stocks have been reduced from £543.473 to £514,046. DOMINION INVESTMEMP 4 And banking (New Zealand F*ress Association) AUCKLAND. August 11. Maintaining its steady level, the net profit of the Dominion Investment and Banking Associalton rose by £llB ft £13,382 in the year to June 30. Unchanged dividends of- 6 per cent. 48 A shares, 4 per cent, on third issue B and C shares, and a payment on E shares, require £lO,Bll. An unchanged additiM of £2OOO to general reserve has raised • to £58.000, and the carry-forward is £SW higher at £6067. Australian Consolidated Industries— The one-for-six issue of ordinary £1 shares at a premium of 7s fid win bt based oft holdings as at August 24. Th* shares are payable 10s on application M October 31. IQs on April 30. 1966. and h fid on October 31. 1955. They will rank for a quarter of the dividend for AN 1955-56 year. PRODUCTION OF TITANIUM One of the world's largest hydro-el—-trie energy producers and distributors, the Shawinigan Water and Power Company, of Quebec, has succeeded in Inducing high-grade titanium metal Wttrolytically. The work, which is bstaf carried out on a small scale by on* * its subsidiaries. Is still in the experiments stages but should, if it fulfils its prestm promise, reduced considerably the vwy high cost of producing the pure metal to quantity. At a meeting of the Buller Development Company last week, an officer of w< Dominion Laboratory suggested that w extraction of ilmenite from West Coast sands for the production of titanium might be practicable. The company has decided to try to enlist the interest of Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., •«« the Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation of the United States.