COMMERCIAL & FINANCIAL

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1920, Page 10

COMMERCIAL & FINANCIAL

Evening Post, Wednesday. Money appears to be ample for all mercantile and other requirements. lb i 3 expected that when the returns of the banks for the quarter ending tin's day, are all in, there will bo shown A very substantial increase in both fixed and free deposits. Advances, on the other- hand, are likely to show a rather large increase, for imported goods are in advancing value if not volume by reason . of the shortage in stocks of products and manufactures from .overseas, and their continued high prices — in many cases ever-increasing prices.. The advance in the rate of interest of i per cent., from 33 per cent, to 4 per cent., on Post Office Savings Banks deposits up to £300 has caused considerable speculation in financial quarters. ' Beyond encouraging thrift or rewarding it, there does not yet appear to many who study monetary matters in the Dominion any reason for the increased rate. Depositors in the post office savings banks are largely those who place the safe keeping of their savings and the facility for getting them at call, before the rate of interest earned >on deposit. The banks' rates remain at 4 per cent, for 2 years, 34 per cent, for 12 months, and 2 per cent, for 6 months; and building societies' rates are unchanged at 44 per cent, for 12 months, and 3-i per cent, for 6 months. The latter are underBtood to be getting all the money they require at these rates. There ha 3 been no increase iv the rates on overdrafts. Money on first-class mortgages is obtainable at 6 per cent.; Government lending rates I through the Public Trustee and the Advances to Settlers are unchanged.

Facilities for direct trade between New Zealand and Canada and the United States are now increased by the institution .of the Canadian Dominion "Government's line from Auckland to New York-Montreal. This addition to the Trans-Pacific services is welcome to business men so far as it goes, but it is felt that it does not go far enough. It suits the export trade of Auckland very well. This now has direct communication with Canada on the west via Vancouver, and on the east via. Montreal, also with New York. For the rest of this- Dominion, however, there is but the_ San Francisco line, and occasional United Kingdom-bound steamers calling at J\ew York or Boston.' The productive districts of Otago, Southland, and Canterbury are manifestly at a disadvantage in having to pay coastal freight 'on all shipments to San Francisco through Wellington or to Vancouver through Auckland. A flat rate would overcome the difficulty, and indeed it has been frequently urged. This would enable all producers or exporters in all parts of this. Dominion ahke to participate in the trade with the United States or Canada. As it is, Auckland enjoys a virtual monopoly of the butter trade with Western Canada—when such can be carried on; and Auckland is also, it seems, the one port in New Zealand of arrival and deDarture of the new Canadian Government line. The meat trade with North America at present being carried on is small but is growing.

WOOL—Small valuations of wool will continue in this district until about tho middle of next month. The crutchings season will then open and will keep the trade busy for the' tim 6. Accumulations of valued wool in the stores of the Dominion by 31st March should reach 450,000----but it is expected that by 31st December next this will be reduced to some 150,000 bales. All, however, will depend upon the shipping tonnage available between now and the time when the next season's clip comes in in November or thereabouts. The shipping outlook is not good at the moment on account of the long delays in British ports of meat steamers which are also great carriers of wool. The influence on the markets of 1921 of possibly very large quantities of wool purchased 'by the Imperial Government in Australia and New Zealand, to say-nothing of the Home and African clips, will have to be taken into account by New Zealand growers in financial forecasting. The outlook for fine wools is promising—and it is such wools that have been commanding fancy figures in the United Kingdom. But what is the position in New Zealand? It is seen in the approximate percentages of the nature of the clips of the Dominion. These are as follow:—Medium crossbred 46 per cent., coarse crossbred 30 per cent., fine crossbred 15 per cent., half-bred 7.5 per cent.; mermo 1.5 per cent.; so then the erossbrerls amount to 91 per ce.nt. of the whole. At the present time it is upon the medium and coarse crossbreds of the New Zealand clips—76 per cent, of the whole—that the Imperial Government is making but little, if any, profit. The cost of getting tho wool, its handling, storage, valuation, insurance, shipping, freight, and other charges, is variously estimated at 5d to lid per pound, i.e., from the grower to the London sale room. Realisations at the January sales in London on New Zaaland crossbred wools with their average values in New Zealand were as follow:

From these prices deduct, say, an average of 8d for all charges, and it ivill be seen that although the return to the Imperial Government on the finer wools may have been substantial, there was but a small, if any, margin on the medium and coarse crossbreds. The New Zealand values were:—Medium crossbreds 16id to 18id;.14d.to 17d; 12d to 14d. Coarse crossbreds 16id, 14£ d, 13£ d; crossbred lambs realised in London, and in New Zealand, in parentheses, as follows:—36d (17d to 20d); 24d to 30d (14d to 163 d), 16d to 21d (lOd to 14d). No one can tell the future of the crossbred market so far as ahead as 12 to 15 months, but the fact that there will be. a lot of medium, coarse, and inferior crossbred wools afloat, in New Zealand, ancl in store in the United Kingdom at the end of this year and early in 1921, is one that growers will require to file for reference. ' '; "

! DAIRY PROpUOE-Nbthing has as y-et been done ;with respect to tho disposal of next season's outputs of butter and cheese. Producers are now awaiting action by the Imperial Government, if any action is to be taken at all to secure supplies. Vancouver is reported as ready to operate as soon as shipmento can bo mads to that market. Production is well maintained for this time of year, and no winter shortage is expectect. Feed is generally abundant everywhere, especially in the Auckland district.

HEMP.—The American market has collapsed, a fall of £10 tier ton for the month being reported. London is buying at all only conditionally upon definite shmment being mada.. This is exceedingly difficult to secure. Prioe6 f.o.b. are approximately as follow : —Good fair £32 per ton; high fair £30; low £26.

ureasy, Medium, 6,6' a. Superior . . 30d to 36d Average . . 24d to. 28d Inferior 18d to 22d Coarse, 30's to 40's. 20d to 23d 18d to 18JW lo^d to 1740