COMMERCIAL & FINANCIAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 13 November 1902, Page 4

COMMERCIAL & FINANCIAL.

BUTTER. The unseasonable weather experienced last month greatly influenced the local production of butter atid cheese. The quantity of butter exported totalled 8066cwt, as against 10,133cwt in October of last year ; the cheese shipments amounted to 862cwt, as compared with 2668cwt in the corresponding month of last year. Tho output of butter and cheese for the ton months ended 31st October, compared with tho figures for the corresponding date of last year, is as under: — 1902. 1901. Cwt. £ Cwt. £ Bntter ... 187,285=876,154 140,817=714,429 Cheese... 65,160=141,470 90,173=208,608 252,4-151,017,624 231,020 923,127 The increase for the period is comparatively small, amounting to 21,425cwt, valued at £94,497. It will be noted that there is a substantial decrease in the output of cheese, but the expansion in the production of butter is most marked. The value of the butter exported this year should approximate to a million sterling. Market reports received by last mail show that prices are expected to rule at about 106s for ohoicest colonial as against 116s last year. The first shipment of "Victorian butter, consisting of about 56 tons, was despatched on the 29th ult., and should reach ' London early in December. AUSTALASIAN DEBTS AND INVESTMENTS. The Australasian Joint Stock Companies' Year Book.compiled by Mr. R. L. Nash, the financial editor of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, and just issued, brings its information up to 'the 30th June. The Australian papers in their reviews of the work speak highly of it. The total investments in Australasian debts and public companies, exclusive of Bank deposits, insurance funds, etc., is as under: — ■ £ Government debts 271,606,000 Corporation debts 25,525,000 Banks 41,098,000 Financial and Trading Companies 113,219,000 Mining Companies 89,976,000 £541,424,000 The division of this total— that is, the amount hold by investors in the United Kingdom, and that held by local investors — shows that the British investments total £387,285,000, and local investments £154,139,000. British investments in colonial Government stocks total £230,377,000, an increase of £21,542,000 compared with I 1899, and investments in Corporation stocks amount to £13,957,000, an increase of £121,000 over 1899. Local investments in Government debts now amount to £41,229,000, as against £25,041,000 in 1899, an increase of £16,188,000 in three years. The investments in Corporation loans total ' £11,568,000, as compared with £7,721,000 in 1899, an increase of £3,817,000. During tho past three years the colonies have borrowed sit the rate of over £12,500,000 a year, and Corporations have borrowed at the rate of £1,320,000 a year.