ISLAND TRADING BY AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 26, 31 July 1933, Page 10

ISLAND TRADING BY AIR

W. B. Carpenter and Co., Ltd., Island traders, Sydney, report for the year ended June 30 net profits £34,105, compared with £33,631 last year. During the period under review, prices for copra fluctuated considerably, and at one stage fell to the record low level of £10 per ton in London. To meet such a position, strictest possible economy had to be practised, and the policy of substituting smaller Diesel-driven vessels for the steam vessels which had been operating proved to bo highly successful, as transport and handling costs were substantially reduced. General merchandise trading activities showed improvement, and there is every reason to believe such will continue. As the air transport companies during the year raised their carriage rates on goods from Salamoa to the Wav, New Guinea, the company decided to establish its owa aeroplane carriage service to the goldfields. Two de Havilland aeroplanes were duly installed, and operation results have exceeded expectations. From late in January to the end of Jilne about half a. million pounds weight of goods had been carried from Salamoa to the company's store at the Wav, resulting in considerably reducing freigbt rates. As bank interest rates on deposits during the year fell to about 2 per cent., the directors decided to invest spare funds in acquiring plantations and other properties at bedrock values. The outlook for the ensuing year is considered to be very uncertain, but the directors feel justified in saying that the company will be able to maintain its position.

Hotel Metropole, Sydney, paid 2% per cent, dividend in 1031, 3 per cent, in 1932, and for the year ended June 30, this year it will pay 5 per cent. Net profite this year are £13,522, .against £8805 last year. The reserve is £63,000.

"If the producers o£ Australia desire to secure the full benefits of what the Ottawa Conference already offers, and the extensions of such benefits they can anticipate if they provide an increased share of the British requirements of chilled beef, which is well within their power, then let them organise as our opponents did in the Argentine and Uruguay, and success and a prosperous meat industry will be their reward."—Mr. J. B. Gramsie, Sydney.