THE C.S.R.

Evening Star, Issue 15480, 30 April 1914, Page 6

THE C.S.R.

GOOD RESULTS . AND GOOD~PROSPECTS. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, April 29. The half-yearlv meeting of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company was held to-day. The report showed that the net profits for Australia wero £133,761; Fiji and New Zealand, £130,000; to which a bal. ance of £52,019 had to be added, leaving a total available for distribution of £315,780. A dividend at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum (£162,500) and a bonus of 5s per share (£40,625) were declared, leaving £112,655 to be carried forward. The estimates of last season's crops wero more than realised. The sugar output, both of Australia and Fiji, far exceeded thoso of any previous year. Next season's prospects are on the whole satisfactory, good rains having fallen over the sugar districts of Australia, but the weather ir. Fiji, was rather dry. Deliveries of refined sugar were well maintained, and no change in prices had taken place during the half-year, but the large production of Cuba now was tending to depress values in Ihe world's markets. The chairman, in his speech, referred to the gratifying result of the Privy Council judgment to both shareholders and the board. Regarding the Bill introduced into the Queensland Parliament for the establishment of boards to determine yearly .the- prices that millowners should pay farmers for cane, he said there were still a good many people who believed that the prices of commodities could with advantage to the community be fixed by legislation. An Indian Commission appointed to inquire into the question of coolie labor for Crown colonies had visited Fiji, and a report from them was expected at an early date. The meeting resolved to vote £2,000 to Mr Knox in recognition of 50 years' service