COMMERCIAL & FINANCIAL

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 46, 23 August 1917, Page 4

COMMERCIAL & FINANCIAL

Evening- Post, Wednesday.

The stool; and share market is in a state of lethargy, due to the interest centred in the £12,000,000 War Loan now before the public. It does not follow from the present languid interest shown in the favourite stocks that there has been any marked depreciation in their value. On the contrary, some of them have advanced inXvalue, and others remain firm; at anyrate have not gone backward. _ The typical examples that follow are given in

illustration., but may be taken as only approximate, for where actual salee at these prices are not a6certaina.ble, buyers' or sellers' prices are given: —

Bank Australasia —

FREIGHTS AND PRICES.—A table showing the relation between increased freights and increased prices in respect of butter, cheese, and meat sent Home from New Zenland has been drawn by Mr. C. V. Houghton, Auckland manager of the New Zealand Shipping Co. It is as follows: — ' Butter Cheese Meat London pre-war price, per cwt 1186 65s 36s 2d London price to-day ... 2003, 140s 95s 4d Increase in price 1 82s 75s 57s 6d Increase in' freight, per owt 2s 6d 2s 4d 4s 8d

The Government has been successful in obtaining tonnage for the despatch of general, as distinguished from refrigerated^ cargo, consisting of wool, tallow, hides, pelts, flax, and other lines. This will materially help in reducing accumulations of such cargo in the various ports in the Dominion.

The suspension of all shipping between New Zealand and Sydney is being reflected here in the hardening of prices of all lines which are competed with by Australian exporters. Grain and onions are among them; but othor supplies, including Eastern goods transhipped at Sydney, are urgently wanted. At the moment such axe running up a fairly he«vy bill for storage and other charges attributable to delay in shipping to New Zealand, and which will have to be borne by the importers or consignees. !

Five per cent, general average has been struok on oargo damaged by fire and water on an oversea steamer which was discharging at a New Zealand main. port.

DAIRY : PRODUCE.—Private cablegrams go to show that the London rnarkefc is bare of butter, and that the high maxima are likely to remain for come time. Whatever the prospects of shipping may be, 19d to 19^d is being paid here for butter in store and new season's, cash down, and the risk of finding space taken by the buyer. To-morrow butter factory directors will meet the Prime Minister with an offer which, it is understood, will amount to the disposal of the whole of their output at a butter-fat parity with the price of cheese, taking into account the value of the skim milk. In other words, if the suppliers to cheese factories are returned 2a per pound for butter-fat making up the .Imperial Government's new price, then the suppliers to butter factories expect ls.9d per pound for but-ter-fat, the remaining 3d being accounted for by the skim.'milk returned to them. From London it is also learned that the Imperial Government is expected to take over the control of all butter .on the spot and to arrive.' Up to the time of writing the Imperial Government had not signified what price it was prepared to pay to obtain the new season's output through the Dominion Government. A well-known local packing house, with one of the leading brands, is withdrawing from the "patting" trade this week, being dissatisfied with local conditions and the generally unremunerative character of the business, according to a Teporfc in the trade. The result of a recent prosecution is also put forward as accelerating this Etep. The . Government is calling tenders for 106,000 pounds of butter in pate for the camps.

N.Z. DAIRY ASSOCIATION.—The New Zealand Dairy Association reports that values again ruled high. Manufacture in the Auckland district had vastly increased, and the association's turnover for the year would exceed £1,250,000 when the accumulated stocks had been realised upon. Butter held at the end of June was valued for stocktaking purposes at Is 5d per lb. To the end of June last the association paid £54,621 63 7d to the but-ter-fat levy fund, and to the same Mate its compensation from this fund amounted to £6545 0s lOd. The quantity of milk received during the year was 97,790,7721b for butter manufacture, and 20,870,1591b for cheese manafacture. The quantity of cream, received was 18,222,4901b. The bufc-ter-fat paid for for butter manufacture was 11,025,9081b, and for cheese manufacture 746,096|1b. The manufacture^during the year was 13,219.5481b butter anVT 1,989,----6611b cheese. Tha over-run was 19.8 per cent, and 2.61b of cheese was made from each pound of butter-fat. The average butter-fat quality of milk was 3.788 per cent., and of cream 40.2 per cent. The skim milk test average over all creameries was 0.04 per cent. For all-tho-year-round supply, qualified by shareholding, including, daily delivery from September to March direct to central factories, tho average payment for the year was 21.48d — practically Is 9Jd— per lb butter-fat, including the butter-fat levy. Where the railway was used, payment was s d por lb butter-fat less. For daily delivery, from September to March, inclusive, a premium of id per lb butter-fat had been paid. The association's suppliers at Matangi cheese factory would receive an average payment of 22.327 d. per lb butter-fat for cheese manufacture, the similar average for all cheese factories being 22.17 M per lb butter-fat. These payments to cheese suppliers constituted a record for the Waikato. They also included the butter-fat levy.

HEMP.—Finer weather has been followed by an improved output. Free on board prices are approximately as follow: Good fair grade, £66 per ton; high fair, £65; low fair, £64 to £63 10s. Tow : No. 1, £10; No. 2, £9. American demand is quiet; Australian, nothing doing.

GENERAL GOODS—Business -is being: done in kapok for shipment from Samarsing at tho end of the year. Prices are reported to be very high, attributed' to the substantial increases in freight from the Straits, which includes the Netherlands Indies. The prico o£ wax for candle making and other purposes continues on the up grade and is likely to still further advance shortly. ■

TEA.—About 24 million pounds of tea will be put up at the Colombo tea auctions this week. The quality is described as poor, Last week's prices wore about on a. par with those ruling tha previous week. Nothing Ls received from CklcatU,

where, it is presumed, shortage of freight is interfering with the sales.

TALLOW—At the locai tallow sales there was a fair attendance of buyers. Prices ranged from 29s to 34s 6d for mixed tallow in casks, and for barrel from 28s to 31s 6d per cwt. Lots of tins brought up to 34s 3d. Rough fat from. 10s to 22s per cwt. Horsehair was in pr.or demand at from s£d to 7£d per lb.

Aug. 1915. Aug. 1916. Aug. 1917. £sd£e d £ s d . 117 0 0 119 10 0 118 0 0 National Bank^ 500 ST6 590 Bank N.Z. (old)---10 5 0 10 19 0 12-17 6 Bank N.S.W.— 40 0 0 36 5 0 37 10 0 Union Bank— 51 10 0 55 10 0* 55 10 0* Dalgety— 6 10 0 6.2 6 7 10 0 Loan and Mercantile (ord.) — 85 J5 0 81 0 0 83 0 0 Wellington Trust and Loan. — 770 700 716 N.Z. Insurance — 600 630 80 0* South Britieh Insurance — 4 16 0 500 60 0, Gear Meat (£l)— 400 490 4 10 0 Meat Export (£s)— 600 626 650 N.Z. Shipping (pref.)— 10 10 0 10 10 0 10 10 0 Wellington Wool (ord.)— 4 15 0 626 70 0t *Ex dividend. +Cum dividend.