ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 134, 7 June 1906, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

9 THE AUCKLAND TRAMWAYS. COMMERCIAL AND MINING MATTERS. EXHIBITION ARRANGEMENTS CRITICISED. (fiiom ova own cokeespondent.) ; • LONDON, 27th April. On the Ist May the meeting will take place in London of the Auckland Electric Tramways Company, and the report of the directors has just been issued. It is stated in that report that the total revenue for the year has amounted to £122,995, as compared with £112,429 for- the 'previous year. The traffic receipts, which amounted to £121,872, show an increase of £11,305. ' After deducting all expenses chargeable to revenue, including £14,255 for interest on the debenture stock, and providing for the rental and percentage of profits payable to the Auckland City Council, j amounting to £2684, and after setting aside £13,949 to meet depreciation, there remains a surplus of £^0,919, making, with the £3098 brought forward from the previous account, an available balance of £24,018. The directors recommend a dividend at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum on the share capital, leaving the sum of £3018 to be carried forward. With the above-mentioned addition the reserve and depreciation fund will stand at £32,000. It is further noted that the total route mileage operated by the company during the year — namely, 18.64 miles — lias remained unaltered, while tho passengers carried have increased by 1,743,342. The number of cars in service at the end of the year was 55, as compared with 47 at tho end of the previous year. To meet the increasing requirements of the traffic five additional cars have since been ordered, the bodies for which are being built in Auckland. An agreement has been entered into with the Mount Eden Road Board to construct an extension of the company's system of about three miles in the district of that authority, and the necessary Order-in-Council is" expected to be issued shortly. The directors are of opinion that this extension will prove a remunerative addition to the company's undertaking. The difficulty »n connection with the subsidence which occurred in certain parts of the track has nofc yet been overcome. The matter has been receiving careful consideration, and measures have now been decided upon which there is very reason to believe will bo effective. Information has reached me ! that the shareholders of the Assets Company are to receive a distribution of 17 per cent, for the year. Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since it was registered to acquire from, the liquidators of the City of Glasgow Bank t^e ..whole assets Qf that concern, consisting" of large amounts of preference and ordinary stock of tho New Zealand and Australian Land Company, and estates in New South Wales and New Zealand, as well as in Scotland. In 1889 the estates in New South Wales were disposed of, and in 1899 practically all the preference and ordinary stock of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, held by the Assets Company, -was distributed .among the The capital is now £100,000 in fully-paid shares of £1 eacli. During the past year the promts from the company's property in Njew Zealand again showed a very largo • increase, chiefly attributable to the ' enhanced prices for wool. £1150 has been recovered in connection with the ■ land titles litigation in New ZeaJland, and it is hoped that still further sums will be obtained on this account. Some time ago I r informed you that Cardiff -and Barry were going to 6pposo Bristol's Parliamentary. Bill because of the free cold storage offered to frozen produce landed al,Avonmouth. I learn that as tho New Zealand Government has been anxious to develop the West of England trado and are not prejudiced in'-fa-vour of any one port, they do nofc intend to take any action in support of Bristol, or that might bo construed as favourable or unfavourable to any individual port. "Shareholders in the Waihi Gold Mining Company have «very reason to congratulate themselves upon ths showing made by the report for 1905," says the Financial Times, "which is to be presented at tho meeting on Monday. There are increases in those directions where increases are desirable, and decreases where decline is a satisfactory feature. The revenue for the year — which is within measurable distance of three-quarters Of a million sterling — exhibits an excess of £45,000 over that of 1904, and after allocating £70,000 in redemption of capital outlay, as against £58,000, the, past year's profit shows an expansion of £39,--000. These results are due to increase in the tonnage of ore milled,- improvement in the percentage of extraction, and economy in costs. Neither of these items is in itself of great proportions, but in the aggregate they made an appreciable difference to the year's profits. Perhaps the most striking feature of the report is the increase in estimated tonnage of ore in sight, which now stands*, at nearly 940,000 tons, an increase of 255,--000 tons upon the quantity of material reckoned to be available at the end of 1904." Various people have been complaining to me lately of experiencing difficulty in obtaining information needed with reference to the coming Exhibition at Christchurch. They tell me that every possible courtesy is shown to them at the office of the High Commissioner, but that the particular class of information they require does not seem to have been supplied from the colony. Ono . intending exhibitor, for instance, was particularly anxious to obtain 'a complete elevation or * drawing or photograph of the Exhibition buildings themselves, with, the view of constructing models in jsilyer or electroplate as souvenirs, of which it was intended to exhibit a largo number. Failing to find what he wanted at tho Agency^General, ho camo to' No. 30, Fleet-street, and found something approximating to his desires in tho large two-page picture given by the Weekly Press. But ho would have greatly preferred it in a more liandy form for übc, and was astonished that there were no photographs of the building, or photographic reproductions of sketches of 1 the- buildings for the use of intending exhibitors. Others have asserted that there has been a great lack of adequate advertising on this side of the world. They declare that advertisements in the colony itself are of little use in tho way of attracting exhibitors from tho Mother Country and the Continent, and that owing to the lack of sufficient notification and to the late hour at which tho advertising has been done, many leading firms at Homo and abroad who would willingly have exhibited and are much chagrined to be prevented, cannot possibly be ready in time. There seems a general idea in London and the principal manufacturing centres that sufficient time has not- been allowed for the convenience of exhibitors, and that owing to this, as well as to the lack of adequate publicity, there will bo far fewer exhibits than otherwise would have been the case. I simply mention these views that have been expressed to me as in duty bound, without offering any opinion of my own. But the matter seems to be qf cjuto enough importance -to J

demand and receive full and prompt attention in the colony. One firm of exhibitors told me that, on applying at the Agency-General quite recently, they were told that the information which they sought could not be given, but it was added that there was really no hurry as there was plenty ot time for all that they required to do. This, however, is just what the wouldbe'exhibitors stoutly denied, declaring to me that they could not possibly be ready in the time that would remain should the needful information arrive later. The opinion also was expressed that the New Zealand authorities — tho&e I mean in the colony — had quite failed to realis-s the time which would be needed by exhibitors on this side of the world to prepare and produce and forward and put in place the exhibits they were anxious to show.