COMMERCIAL

Evening Star, Issue 21092, 3 May 1932, Page 5

COMMERCIAL

THE SHARE MARKET DUNEDIN STOCK EXCHANGE. There was an improvement in Bank of New Zealands, buyers offering £2 4a 6d, with sellers asking £2 ss. Buyers improved to £1 6s for the Long “ D ” issue, but no sellers quoted. There was no seller of Union Banks below £6 14s, and buyers did not quote. Westport Coals were still wanted at 18s cum refund on capital, but sellers would not take less than 19s 9d for them. In the miscellaneous section there was no buyer of Milburn Lime and Cements below £1 6s 6d, and there was no inquiry for them. M'Leod Bros, were sought at £2l, without sellers. Buyers offered £2 6s for N.Z. Drugs, without any result. Mount Lyells were for sale at 18s 9d, but buyers wore not present. Sellers of Okaritos increased their price to 9s 6d, but the best buyer offered only 9s 2d.

DIVIDENDS DUE. Stock. Amount. Period. Data. E.S. and A. Bank Is 9 3-5 d interim May 2 \Vaihi Is final May e Donahys’ Rope . and Twin® '. Is 3d final May 10 (approx.) Mossiel Woollen Co. 3« 2 2-5 d interim * May 12 National Insurance 4d interim May 16 N.Z. Paper Mills 9 3-5 d final May 19 National Bank Aust. (£lO paid) 6s final May National Bank Aust. (£5 paid) 3s final May AUSTRALIAN STOCKS. Press Association—! j Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, May 2. (Received May 3, at 11.45 a.m.) Commonwealth s’s, 1955, £54; 1957, £54 ss; 4i’s, £sl; New South Wales s’s, 1957, £45 10s; 1958, £44. LONDON WHEAT QUOTATIONS. Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, May 2. (Received May 3, at 11.45 a.m.) Wheat cargoes are steady. Parcels are inactive. Futures: London—June, 24s 7d; September, 255; December, 25s s)d. Liverpool—May, 6s 13d; July, 5s 4Jcl; October, 5s 7£d. THE FRUIT MARKET. Proas Association-By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, May 2. (Received May 3, at 10 a.m.) The Rangitiki’s New Zealand apples realised: Cox’s, 12s and 15s; Jonathans, 10s Gd and 12s 6d. Pears: Cases—Winter Cole, 17s and 18s; Boses, 20s; Jonathans, 21s; Clairgeau, 13s; half-cases — Winter Cole, 7s. PRICE OF GOLD. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, May 2. (Received May 3, at 10 a.m.) The jirice of gold is £5 12s 9d per ounce. RUBBER STOCKS. Pres* Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, May 2. (Received May 3, at 10 a.m.) , Rubber stocks; London, 61,450 tons; Liverpool, 61,480.,

AUSTRALIAN STOCK EXCHANGES. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, May 2. The Stock Exchange was extremely quiet, and there was a small turnover. The following sales were made:— Bank of Now South Wales, £2B; Commercial Bank of Sydney, £ls; National Bank (£5 paid), 108 s 6d; Colonial Sugar, £42 10s; Tooth’s, 25s 3d; Dunlop Perdriau (pref.), 25s 1 Jd; North Broken Hill, 60s 6d. Bonds: 4 per cent., 1938, £95 10s; 1941, £93 2s 6d; 1944, £9O 7s Gd; 1947, £9B 7s 6d; 1953, £B9 15s; 1957, £9O ss; 1959, £BB 17s 6d; 1961, £B9. MELBOURNE, May 2. Sales were made as follow:—South Broken Hill, 40s 6d; North Broken Hill, 60s 3d. GRAIN AND PRODUCE. Messrs Donald Reid and Co. Ltd. report as under:— Chaff.—There is not much of a demand as yet for chaff, but with winter approaching sales should increase any time now. There is generally ample available for all demand. Rrime is worth from £4 10s to £4 15s, ex truck, and £5 is the equivalent for the same quality ex store. Sacks are extra. Rotatoes.—Digging of main crop has commenced, and delivery of one or two forward sales has _ been completed. Trucks are also arriving on the local siding for immediate sale and also for storage. Values are slowly improving, and £4 15s, ex truck, Dunedin, is being obtained for best quality. The potatoes this season are mainly of good ■quality. Oats.—Samples are arriving freely; the yields have been excellent in most cases'. Unfortunately the weather has taken toll, and the bulk oftthe offerings are dark in colour, and consequently will not grade up to the standard required by merchants. Millers are the principal buyers, but as they require the grain to be 441 b or better a large quantity is left to be disposed of through other sources. A grade Gartons are worth 3s per bushel, an extra Id being paid for choice lots; B grade, 2s 9d, sacks extra, 0.t., country stations. Wheat.—There is nothing fresh to report in this market. Millers are still caking delivery of all suitable lines at the fixed rates. Fowl wheat is offering more freely, and merchants are laying in their stocks for the season. The different values are as follow:—Milling: Tuscan, 4s Sid; Hunters, 4s 10id; Velvet, 5s Oid ; f.0.b., Dunedin. The Wheat Marketing Agency deducts Id from the above prices for the equalisation fund. Fowl W’heat is selling, according to quality, at prices ranging from 4s 3d to 5s per bushel, sacks extra,, ex store. DEPARTMENTAL STORES. Among the most harassed of men are the directors of the department stores (writes the Sydney correspondent of tho Melbourne ‘ Argus ’). They have great difficulties wherever they are situated, but in Sydney they are burdened enormously. The sales tax is sufficient of itself to occasion grey hairs. The tax for the relief of unemployment, the tax for family endowment, the Federal land tax, the State and Federal income taxes, the city rates, and other imposts make worry unceasing. The problem is not merely to pay the rates and the taxes; it is made more difficult because of the work of preparing returns. Merchants in other States may suffer many of these disabilities, but no other State has the stupid law which requires each article to be marked with the name of the State in which it was manufactured. This entails a great amount of work in the large stores, and additional expense for no benefit whatever, either to the stores or to Sydney. Seventeen leading firms are being prosecuted for haying displayed goods without tickets indicating the State of their origin. Articles manufactured in Sydney are generally dearer than those manufactured in other States, and the fact that they are labelled “ N.S.W.” does not induce anyone to buy them. Two adjoining mercers attracted attention the otherday. One/had a windowful of ties marked “ Made in N.S.W.” ; the other had a similar display marked “ Made in Victoria.” The ties made in Victoria were cheaper and more attractive. EXCUSES FOR DOING NOTHING. Mr A. W. Mellon, the United States Ambassador to Great Britain, it was stated by cable the other day, has intimated in the course of a conversation that there is not the slightest chance of the United States agreeing to a revision, of war debts at present, and that it would be fatal to raise the question at this juncture. The phrases “at present ” and “ at this juncture ” will be noticed especially (remarks the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald ’). The phrases are used because a Presidential election will be held in November next. Nothing must be done before the election, as action now might jeopardise the chance of a candidate supporting revision of war debts. With war debts is intimately bound up the subject of reparations. “ These subjects must not be definitely dealt with, just now” is the continually-repeated story of Continental politicians and American politicians because of some election or other. And there are always elections looming. The position was very forcibly put by Sir Arthur Balfour at a special meeting of business people in the Cutlers’ Hall, Sheffield, recently. The real tragedy or this reparations question, he said, is that as soon as you want to do something (and the Cabinets want to do something earnestly) you are met with this kind of thing: “You must postpone this because of the Presidential election in America or of elections in Germany or France.” That is a tragedy, because there is always an election somewhere, especially if these questions are left unsettled. “ I think,” Sir Arthur continued, “ that we want to look upon this as a much bigger question than an election in two or three countries, because, after all, the whole trade of the world, the whole satisfaction humanity can get, depends upon the settlement of reparations and debts.” TRANSVAAL GOLD MINING. The gold mining industry alone among South African activities is still creating fresh records (wrote the Johannesburg correspondent of the ‘ Economist ’ recently). Not only was last year’s production of 10,874,145 fine ounces the highest yet recorded, but owing to tho very ample supply of native labour the development footage also constituted a record. The heavy development of the last few months will be invaluable _ if any improvement in general production reduces the labour supply available to the mines to more normal proportions. Owing to the increased tonnage milled many of the mines were able to reduce their grade in 1931 while maintaining or slightly increasing their profit. Total profits amounted to £13,750.000, and dividends of £8.536,000 were distributed. Some of the most striking results arc shown bv companies on the Central and West Rand, which only in recent years wore regarded as almost moribund. Needless to say, a moderate devaluation of currency would give the industry (further stimulus.

BRADFORD MARKET. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. ‘ LONDON, May 2. (Received May 3, at 10 a.m.) The Bradford market is quiet and barely steady. SYDNEY WOOL SALES. MARKET FIRM. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, May 2. At the wool sales 10,716 bales were offered, 9,847 being sold, while 878 were disposed of privately. An all-round firmness was manifest, and there was good competition, the French and Japanese being more active. Greasy merino made 261 d. The average proce of wool last week was £9 11s a bale, or 7.7 d per lb. -

Quotations as under; — Buyers. Seller*. £ s. d. £ «. d. BANKING.— Bank of N.S.W. ... 24 0 0 Bank of N.Z 2 4 6 2 5 0 Bank of ‘New Zealand (Long “ D ”) 1 6 0 , Commercial Bank ... — 0 14 0 E.S. and A. Bank (ox div.) O O National Dank of New Zealand 3 10 0 Union Bank of Australia Ltd 6 14 0 INSURANCE.— National Insur. Co. ... 0 11 8 Standard Insur. Co,... 1 14 0 — SHIPPING.— Huddart, Parker (ord.) 1 1 0 U.S.S. Co. (prof.) ... — 10 3 COAL— Westport Coal (cum refund) 0 18 0 0 19 9 LOAN AND AGENCY.Dalgety and Co. 7 1 0 Goklsbrougli, Mort .. 1 1 5 12 0 Perpetual Trustees ... — 3 10 Wright, Stephenson (prof.) — 0 15 0 MEAT PRESERVING.— Gear Meat Co 1 6 3 N.Z. Refrigerating (cont.) 0 3 9 0 4 0 MISCELLANEOUS.— Crystal Ice Co 1 3 6 1 10 0 D.I.C. (ord.) — 0 12 3 Dominion Rubber ... — 0 6 0 Kaiapoi Woollen (ord.) _ ... 0 <5 0 0 6 3 Milburu Lime and Cement 1.6 6 M'Lcod Bros. 21 0 0 — National Electric — 0 9 0 N.Z. Drug Co 2 6 0 — N.Z. Express (pref.) — 0 15 3 N.Z. Paper Mills (cum div.) 0 18 6 0 19 3 ‘ Otago Daily Times ’ 1 15 6 ■, — Wilson’s (N.Z.) Cement 1 5 0 — GAS— Christchurch 15 6 BREWERIES.— N.Z. Breweries Ltd. i 3 6 — MINING.— Kawarau 0 0 6 Waihi (cum div.) ... 0 16 0 0 16 9 Waihi Grand Junction 0 3 3 ; — Electrolytic Zinc (pref.) ... 0 18 9 0 19 6 Mount Lycll — 0 18 9 Molyneux Electric — 0 4 0 Mahakipawa — 0 0 5 Kildare 0 1 4 0 19 Okarito 0 9 2 0 9 6 Paddy’s Point 0 3 0 0 3 8 Golden Progress — 0 2 ‘ 7 lyng Solomon 0 1 0 0 14 Gblden Point 0 0 54 0 0 64 Golden Terrace 0 2 6 0 5 0 Blackwatcr 0 6 11 — Alexander Mines (cont.) ... Gillespie’s Beach 0 14 0 par 0 0 4p Consolidated Goldfields 0 2 6 1 - WAR BONDS— Bonds quoted arc £100 Bonds). 1938 44 p.c. Bonds ... , — 95 0 0 1939 44 p.c. Bonds ... 92 0 0 93 0 0 1958 44 p.c. Insc. ... — 95 0 0 1959 44 p.c. Insc. 92 0 0 93 0 0 1933 54 P-c. S.S. Bonds 99 0 0 — 1933 54 p.c. S.S. Ins. 99 0 0 — 1936 54 p.c. Bonds ... 99 0 0 — 1933 54 p.c. Bonds ... 98 0 0 — 1933 54 p-c. Insc. ... 98 0 0 — 1937 54 p.c. Bonds ... — 97 0 0 1937 54 p-c.' Bonds (Feb.) 99 0 0 99 15 0 1937 54 p.c. Bonds (Sept.) — 99 15 0 1937 54 p-c. Insc. (Feb.) , 98 10 0 99 7 6 1937 54 p.c. Ins. (Sept.) 98 10 0 99 0 0