STANDARD INSURANCE.

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 37, 12 August 1942, Page 3

STANDARD INSURANCE.

Directors of the Standard Insurance Co., Ltd.," Dunedin,. report that income for the year amounted to £229,621 and expenditure to £189,514, leaving a balance of £40,100, to which has to be added the carry-forward from last year, ,£24,090. After making full provision "for taxtition, outstanding losses, depreciation, and provident fund, and placing £13,000 lo reserve, the payment of a dividend of Is 3d a share for the half-year ended June 30 is' recommended. BUSINESS IN BRIEF. "Otago Daily Times" directors have "declared interim dividend of 9d a share, payable August 15. A total gross income of £19,956,000 was disclosed by Lord McGowan in the latest Consolidated Income Statement of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., compared with £19.018,000 for 1940, the increase being due to expanding activities; net consolidated income, however, declined from £6,576,000 to £6,243,000, due to taxation, which amounted to £8.762.000, compared with £7,385,000 for 1940. The tin buffer pool is to be dissolved and its cash, amounting to £2,500,000, distributed. This should reinforce the liquid assets of tin producing companies. Home and Col6nlal Stores, Ltd., London, a multiple retail organisation familiar to New Koaland dairy produce exporters, after emerging from a series of lean years, had a good year fh 1941, but the Vhole of the additional profit .went In taxation, and again no dividend was practicable on ordinary shares. The taxation provision by companies In this group amounted to £981,330, against £594,392. After taxation profit for 1941 came out at £i4S.(it)7. compared with. £159,137. FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PRICES. Market Gardeners, Wellington, report prices of fruit and vegetables as follows:—Mandarins, 13s fid i passion fruit, 10s to 25s 9d; tomatoes, 2s tid a Ib; Radish, Is, tid to 4s; parsnips, 3s to tis; rhubarb, 2s to tis; carrots, 25 to tis; beetroot. 2s to 4s; leeks, 4s to 9s, all a dozen bunches: cabbage, 10s to 19s 6d; cauliflower, 10s to 225; swedes. 6s to 7s; pumpkins, 20s to 40s, all a sack; silver beet, 3s 6d to 6s 0d; parsnips, 6s to 10s 6d; celery, 15s to 225; sprouts, 20s to 35s tid; cabbage, 3s to 7s; carrots, 4s ;.to 9s 6d; spinach, 10s to 265; beetroot, 2s 6d to 5s • leeks, Ss to 12s 6d ; swedes, 2s 6d to 4s; lettuce, 10s to 245, all a case. THE "RETAIL RUSH." Kirects of the recent rush on the retail trade in Sydney are set out in the Commonwealth Bank, the source of information being the Retail Traders' Association of New South Wales, The percentage increases from the month of April, 1941. were as follows:—pleco goods, 0(5.0; women's wear, 31.3; men s and boys' wear, 31.3; boots and shoes, 40,8; furniture and hardware, 1.0; other, including fancy goods, books, food, and perishables, 17.4. * IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INTEBESTS. "Our main manufacturing pubsidlftry or assrt* elated companies in the Britieh Empiro*--Ira« perial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand, Canadian Industries, and African Explosives and Industries—have continued their successful progress,'' stated Lord Mc Gowan. chairman of Imperial Chemical Indus* tries, Ltd., to. the annual meeting in London Within the limitations of shipping, exchange resources, .and locally available materials, the.v have continued tv expand their own activities which, like ours, have grown with the intensity of the war effort." The embroilment u( the whole of the Far East by the declaration of war on the United .Nations had vitally atl'ecled companies in Japan, China, and Malaya. Bul tha company was not unmindful of the risks of carrying on business in these areas, and had from time to time iv preceding years made ample provisions agaipst contingent losses in the territories now occupied by the enemy ln the Ear East. "f. must, however, warn you. now Japan is at the Kates of Australia and India, that we have very large interests, both of revenue aud capital nature, ln those countries, through Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand and 1.C.1. (India)," added Lord McGowan.