UNCERTAIN OUTLOOK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 59, 11 March 1939, Page 12

UNCERTAIN OUTLOOK

EARNINGS AFFECTED BY, WOOL PRICES

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, February 20-

The Rt. Hon. Viscount Hampden presided at the 63rd ordinary general meeting of the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand on February 16. He said it was a matter of disappointment that the.profits had neither provided for the .maintenance of the 2h per cent, bonus paid to shareholders last year, nor for a bonus to the staff. The fall in the prices of wool and by-products had seriously affected the earning power of their business throughout the year, added to which increased taxation and expenses had contributed to the reduction in the amount available for distribution. Although the gross profit for the year showed only a comparatively small decrease of £3838, an increase of £7389 in the land and income tax in New Zealand was mainly responsible for a reduction of £8333 in the balance of the profit and loss account. As regarded the current year the outlook was still clouded by international politics, but it was surely not unreasonable, or contrary to the teachings of history, to hold the belief that in the not too far distant future they would be able to look back on the period in which they now lived as one of undue despondency. "New Zealand was almost entirely dependent on Great Britain for consumption of its meat and dairy produce, and home markets at the present time were very sensitive to the constantly changing political position."

It was a matter of considerable interest that the Government's programme also included the expansion of the Dominion's secondary industries, but the Prime .Minister, Mr. Savage, had stated that New Zealand would continue to give preference to British goods.

The report was unanimously adopted