WELLINGTON WOOLLEN

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 280, 21 August 1940, Page 14

WELLINGTON WOOLLEN

Balance-slwel Changes

CHAIRMAN’S REVIEW

It,:'ie'viug the b:ilauee-6*lie*'t ol the eilingiou Wv,',ll,m Maiiiilnctiiring 1.ti1.. at the .-1111111:11 meeting of shareholders yeslerdav, the chairman <>t directors, .Mr. W. 11. I’. Harber. said that slock standing at £109,176 was Ihe lowest held al. balance time lor 2 I years, il being less limn a year ago by 160,858. The company had always carried in stock, in ’l s warehouses in l lie i'onr eentre.s a large assortment of domestic items to enable prompt deliver', and il had several limes gone over £200.000. Ibe Sl"vk now held consisted mainly of raw material, goods ill process, ami consumable stores. the company "'as applying the rationing system to domestic slock as it came through, so Ireaiiug all customers as fairly as possible. Sundry debtors’ accounts were up b.' £12.511, a result, of course, of the larger turnover. In 1939 sundry creditors stood at. £100.714, against the present amount uf £60.126. and of that a large proportion, some 75 per cent., covered income tax provision. An amount of £13,000 had been paid for income tax in advance, on which 2 per cent, was allowed until due date. There was also placed uti deposit, nt. call £25,000, at a satisfactory rate of interest.. . . , , , To buildings, next, to nothing had been added, bur. tenders had been called for a substantial extension, to relieve congestion in the main mill, also to house machinery to land shortly. The plant was increased by £4lBB, and it. had been well maintained out of revenue. To depreciation Ibis year was allocated £20,000, as although the amount exceeded the tax department’s scale of allowances, the wear and tear bad been severe owing io overtime worked, with a much heavier class of textiles handled. This deduction now made the aggregate writing off £227.334. equal to 49. i per cent, of original cost. The debits to profit and loss, excluding depreciation, were up by £31,467, which included the reserve for known income tax. In recognition of the increased effort called for during the year, the directors had granted to employees an extra week’s wages, and a bonus to foremen and heads of departments. , 'The chairman expressed rhe directors, appreciation of the continued efforts of the stall’ to forward the company’s interests with a special word of thanks to the general malinger, sectional managers, branch managers, and heads of departments, who bad had a strenuous year. It is gratifying to know that while urgency of production was essential, the high quality of the output was not relaxed. . The report and balance-sheet; and the dividend recommendation were adopted. The retiring directors. Messrs. SV. H. L‘. Barber and J. M. Allison, were reelected. The auditors. Henry Kember and Son and Mr. E. AV. Hunt, were reappointed. A vote of thanks was passed co the directors ami staff. N.Z. OVERSEAS TRADE High Level Of Export Values In terms of New Zealand currency and excluding specie, exports for the year ended Juue 30, 1940, amounted to £65.858,636, and imports for the same period to £46,070,033, leaving an excess of exports over imports of £lJ,iBb,bod, as compared with £1,392,304 in 1908-o9 and £4,317,30< in 1931-38, reports the Government Statistician. The value of exports in 1939-40 was 13.8 per cent, above the 1938-39 figure, and (in terms of New Zealand currency) the highest ever recorded, mainly due to favourable wartime prices fixed by the United Kingdom Government for the Dominion’s exportable surpluses of meat, wool, butter, aud cheese. In considering quantities, butter declined by 6 per cent., aud wool by more than 10 per cent. Hides and skins, with the exception of opossum skins and sheepskins with wool, also fell; and because of the necessity for conserving shipping space for more essential commodities, apples fell to about one-half of the previous year’s shipments, while exports of pears during 1939-40 were negligible. Marked declines also occurred iu potatoes aud hops, with lesser falls in phormium fibre, grass and clover seeds, and kauri gum. Meat shipments generally increased considerably, the marked fall in chilled beef being substantially offset by an increase in frozen beef. Fork shipments dropped by -I per cen t. Decrease In Imports. Imports for the six mouths ended June 30, 1940, were £3,317,150 (11.8 per cent.) less than in the corresponding period of 1939. Because of the general upward trend in prices of imported goods, a rise in value shown does not necessarily indicate a quantitative increase, and in many cases an actual decrease iu quantity may well have occurred. The principal decline occurred in motorvehicles, which fell in number from 18,899 to 3961 and in. value from £3,160,257 to £662,911. Motor spirits dropped in quantity by 25 per cent. (14,000,000 gallons), through there was a rise in value of 9 per cent. Hardware generally was down, a notable exception being iron aud steel —tinned plate and sheet; tubes, pipes, and fittings, though up in value, were down in quantity. Values show a marked increase in cotton and linen piece-goods and in jute and hessian piece-goods, with lesser advances in woollen piece-goods and in silk piece-goods. Increases in both quantity and value occurred in newsprint and other printing paper, bags and sacks, woolpacks, lubricating oil. and linseed oil. Wheat imports declined very considerably. as did cigarettes and manufactured tobacco. There was a marked rise iu tea imports and a moderate one in whisky. A fall of 28 per cent, was recorded in sugar, but. there was a considerable rise in value. Direction Of Import Trade. A consideration of the direction of New Zealand's import trade is of interest in view of the policy of import selection which was introduced nt the end of .1938, and one object of which is to give a maximum preference to goods of United Kingdom origin, or failing the United .Kingdom, to goods of other British countries. The position, of course, has been complicated by the incidence of war. The policy did not have any marked effect on the Dominion’s imports till toward the end of 1939. so that in comparing the direction of trade in the six months of 1938 aud 1.939 there was very little movemen l.

Thus British countries supplied 73.9 per cent. (United Kingdom. 47.9 per cent.) of the total for the 1938 half-year and 74.3 per cent. (United Kingdom. 47. S per cent) for the corresponding period in 1939. In 1940 the share of British countries rose to 77.6 per cent, and of rhe United Kingdom to 49.0 per cent. Australia’s percentage increased from 12.9 in 1938 to 14.3 in J 940, but Canada’s fell from 8.7 to 5.4. India. Ceylon, and Malaya recorded substantial increases, the greatest relative increase being in imports of Malayan origin. The United States supplied nearly brill’ ol New Zealand’s imports of foreign origin in the first, half of 1910. with a share of 10.5 per cent, of the total imports. compared with 11. S per cent, for the 1938 period. A moderate increase "as recorded for the Netherlands Fast Indies, another big supplier, nnd for Belgium: I'Tanee slowing a very slight increase. There "’ns a marked reduction in import.s •>!' Japanese origin in I'.ilu.