Commerce, Mining, & Finance

Evening Star, Issue 21292, 22 December 1932, Page 7

Commerce, Mining, & Finance

THE SHARE MARKET DUNEDIN STOCK EXCHANGE * There was inquiry for Bank of New South Wales at the final call-over of the Dunedin Stock Exchange for the year, which was held this morning, buyers offering £26 and sellers asking £1 more. Bank of New Zealands had sales at £2 Is and . £2 ■ Os 9d, after which buyers offered £2 . Os 6d. without any sellers quoting, Com- ’ mercials improved to buyers at 13s 6d •' without any sellers quoting. Nationals were ; firm at £3 7s, cum dividend, but no . buyer offered more than £3 ss. A late sale yesterday at £3 6s was reported in : Buyers still offered £2 13s for South British shares, and sellers were 4s away. , {Standards were for sale at £2 9s without : ‘ any inquiry being made. Kaitangata Coals improved to buyers at ; fid premium,- but there were still no sellers. Both issues of Westport-Stocktons were for sale, Is being asked for the ords. and Is fid for the prefs., but neither was wanted. Goldsbrougn, Horts were for sale at £1 '2s, but there was no inquiry for them. ; National Mortgages were also for sale, £1 17s 6d being- asked, but there was still no buyer. There was a wide market for the “ B ” issue, buyers offering 14s fid for them, with no seller under 18s fid. A parcel of Perpetual Trustees was offered at £3, but : there were no takers. Buyers of the, paid-up Refrigerating shares moved up to 9s 9d, and the contributing shares were wanted at 2s lid ■without any sellers quoting. A buyer of Southland Frozen Meats came on the market at £1 18s, but no .shares were offered. British Tobaccos were wanted at £1 7s, cum dividend, without any seller quoting. Kauri'Timbers were for sale at 12s fid without any buyer bidding. 'National Electrics 'were wanted at 5s 9d, with sellers asking Bs. ‘ Otago Daily Times ’ shares ■were inquired for at £1 19s, but they were not obtainable. Buyers of N.Z. Breweries cased to £1 4s, and the best seller was 2s away. Waihi Grand Junctions had a seller at 3s fid, but the shares were not wanted. Ordinary Electrolytic Zincs were wanted at 15s, but there were no sellers. Broken Hill Souths were on the market at £2 Is, with buyers Is away. Late Sale Reported Yesterday.—National Bank of New Zealand, £3 6s (cum div.). . Sales on ’Change.—Bank of Nc». - Zealand, £2 Is, £2 Os 9d.

BONDS—(Bonds quoted are £IOO Bonds.) 1933 4i p.c. Bonds ... 93 0 0 1939 4| p.c. Bonds ... 93 2 6 1938 4| p.c, Inscribed 93 0 0 1939 4i p.c. Inscribed 93 2 6 1933 Si p.c. S.S. Bonds 100 0 0 1933 Si p.c. S.S. Insc. 100 0 0 1936 5j p.c. Bonds ... 99 0 0 1933 Si p.c. Inscribed 99 0 0 100 0 0 1937 Si p.c. Bonds (February) 1937 Si p.c. Bonds (September) ... 99 0 0 1937 Si p.c. Inscribed (February) 99 0 0 1937 Si p.c. Inscribed (September) ... ... 99 0 0 i DIVIDENDS DUE. Stock. Amnt. Period. Date. British Tobacco 3 3-5 d int. Dec. 31 Blackwatcr Mines Is interim ' Dec. 31 Consolidated Goldfields 6d Dec. 31 -1933.King Solomon 3d Jan. 9 Broken Hill South Is Feb. 10 STOCK EXCHANGE CLOSES Tile Dunedin Stock Exchange closed at mid-day to-day for the vacation, which will last till Monday, January ■J, 1932.

AUCKLAND WOOL SALES RECORD LOW PRICE COMPARISON WITH REGENT YEARS [Special to the • Star.’] AUCKLAND, December 22. It was realised when the Auckland wool sale was in progress on December 1 and 2 that farmers would receive very poor returns, but few will have been prepared to find the averages work out so low. Figures now supplied by the secretary show the results of the sale to have been:—Number of bales offered, 28,688; number of bales sold, 23,547; value of wool sold, £132,118; average price per bale, £5 12s 3d; average price per lb, 3.686 d. ' It is evident that the keen demand which resulted in fair sales of half-bred and other fine wools gave a false idea of the general trend. In other words, the very low prices bid for coarser lines brought the average down to the lowest figure recorded' locally. The average price is a fraction lower than was recorded in March —namely, 3.702 d per lb. The following table gives details of the results obtained at the November sales in recent years:— November, 1926—Average per bale, £ls 5s 7d; average per lb, 10. Old; total, £264,000. 1927—£21 9s 9d, 14.81 d, £496,000. ' 1928—£22 11s, 15.64 d, £498,000. 1929 £ls 9s 2d, 10.95 d, £238.125. 1930 £6 13s 2d, 4.67 d, £100,759. 1931 £7 5s lOd, 5.065 d, £103,131. 1932 £5 12s 3d, 3.656 d, £132,118. The only satisfactory feature of the sale is that a good clearance was effected, and the carry-over to next sale is comparatively small. AMERICA’S WHEAT CROP Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. WASHINGTON, December 20. The Department of Agriculture stated to-day that indications point to a 1933 winter wheat, crop of less than 400,000,000 bushels, compared with an estimated 462,151,000 for 1932. The area sown ,in winter wheat this fall is estimated at 39,902,000 acres,’the smallest sown in any year since 1923. The condition on December 1 was reported at 68.9 per cent, of normal, the lowest for December 1 since the department begani issuing a report in 1863. In the past, the statement continued, conditions below the average on December 1 have been followed by more than average j abandonment and below the , average | yields per acre. METAL MARKET Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON. December 20. The following are 'the official quotations : Copper: Standard, £2B 15s; forward, £29 Is 3d. ' Electrolytic; Spot, £33 10s; forward, £34 10s. Wire bars, £34 10s. Lead: Spot, £ll 3s 9d; forward, £ll 11s 3d. Spelter: Spot, £ls 8s 9d; forward, £ls 8s 9d. Tin : Spot, £149 2s 6d; forward, £l5O 11s 3d. Silver: Standard, 16 15-16 d per oz; fine, 18id. MOUNT LYELL SHARES Press Association—By Telegraph—Ctpyright LONDON, December ,21. (Received December 22, at 11 a.m.) Mount Lyell, 15s 9d. P. ANDO. SHARES Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, December 21. (Received December 22. at 11 a.m.) P. and O. shares, 13s 9d. DAIRY MARKET Messrs Dalgety and Company Limited have received the following cable from London, dated December' 21: —The butter and cheese markets are of a holiday character. Quotations: Danish butter, 122 s to 1245; New Zealand finest butter, ,82s to 84s; Australian finest unsalted butter, 86s to 90s; Australian finest salted butter, 82s to 84s; Australian G.A.Q., 80s to 81s. Australian cheese—white not quoted, coloured not •quoted; New Zealand—white, 51s to 525, coloured 56s to 575; Canadian—white 62s to 68s, coloured 62s to 68s, I c.i.f. not quoted. The Now Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company has received the following cabled advice from their London house, dated December 21:—Butter, 84s; market slow. Cheese: White, 51s, 525, market slow; coloured, 565, 575, small supplies. PRICE OF FINE GOLD Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, December 21. (Received December 22, at 11 a.m.) Fine gold is quoted at £6 3s 5d per ounce. AUSTRALIAN STOCKS BOUGHT FOR RETIRING PURPOSES Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, December 21. It is learned that the Australian Government purchased 103,000 dollars’ worth of Commonwealth stocks m the month of November for retiring purposes at prices between £6O and £7O, the market being then particularly lew as a result ot the debt discussions, resulting in considerable savings to the Government.

A WEST COAST FIELD WORK IN TAIPO VALLEY It is reported that a party who have been prospecting in Taipo (Jackson’s) district have discovered several 'leaders carrying gold near the junction of Julia creek witli Taipo River. The quartz, it is stated, is a heavy massive sulphide ore, with slaty intrusions, and the leader carrying visible gold lias been subjected to assay, showing its i content to include 4oz 7dwt of silver to the ton. This is the report of the Mines Department on the samples. There are leaders running into Julia Creek, and the party have begun a drive across the leaders in order to test the visible prospects, this drive being one calculated to cut the main reef in a southerly direction. The best array is from a 6in leader, the next ones being 2Jiu in width, and one assaying 2dwt 7gr of gold and 7dwt of silver to the ton. All of the leaders tested show a little gold. The party discovered another quartz outcrop further down the valley, averaging 6ft in width. The Taipo Valley has been worked with considerable success by individual miners for many years. The re-work-ing of the riverbed has paid well after periods of heavy floods. This would seem to indicate the existence of a gold reef somewhere in the hinterland, but prospectors have not yet been able to locate it. A Christchurch party arranged about two years ago with an English mining expert to visit the valley to report on the alluvial prospects, but his inspection convinced him that the cost of boring (about £10,000) on account of the boulders would be too heavy to justify him recommending the project of his principals. The prospects otherwise were favourable. WIDESPREAD IMPETUS PROMISING VENTURES “ Tiie future of gold mining in the dominion appears to carry great possibilities,” said Mr G. C. Creagh, chairman of the Auckland Stock Exchange, at the annual meeting. “ Largely as a result of the slump, more attention has been given to gold mining than for many years past, and there has never been a more genuine attempt to develop the industry along proper lines, and with the introduction of modern and scientific methods of treatment.” Mr Creagh said that the Blaekwater and Alexander mines, the Okarito Fivemile Beach Company, and the King Solomon Deep Lead had come into prominence as producers this year, and the Nokomai and Wetherstone Gold Mining Companies, both most interesting propositions, would in the course of a few months be in full operation. There were also a large number of other companies which should be adding their quotas to the gold production of the dominion during the coming year. The oldest and greatest mine, the Waihi, was still very much to the fore as a bullion producer, and for some years past had paid 2s a sliare per annum in dividends, equal to 40 per cent, .'on the paid-up value of the shares. Operations of the Waihi Grand Junction Company also had been meeting with encouraging results for the past few years, Mr Creagh said. The Golden Dawn was another mine in the Upper Thames district which had been producing consistently for some time past. A large amount of prospecting and development work should eventually lead to a considerable increase in the dominion’s gold output was being carried out in both islands, and next year there should be something tangible to report. Referring to the search for oil, Mr Creagh said that recent developments on the Moturoa Company’s property at New Plymouth tended to confirm the faith of those who had long believed that oil would eventually be produced in large and payable quantities in tne dominion. The company’s results justified the greatest confidence in the future results of the Taranaki oilfields. PACIFIC STARR-BOWKETT SALE AND BALLOT Mr J. B. Shacklock, chairman of directors of the Pacific Starr-Bowkett Building Society, presided over a good attendance of members on Tuesday evening, when £I,OOO was disposed ot by sale in group 6 at satisfactory prices iii three parcels to local shareholders. A ballot of £I,OOO in group 7 was drawn by cluster 402, held by one shareholder at present residing in Cromwell. AUSTRALIAN SHEEP COUNTRY OVERSTOCKED A warning that Australia is heavily overstocked with sheep and that a new market must be fostered lor mutton and lamb was given by Mr T. C. Maidment, a Victorian pastoralist. Mr Maidment observes that it is difficult to understand why a serious at- j tempt is not made to open markets in j the East to take Australia’s surplus mutton. In only one year of the last | century did the number of shdep in Australia exceed 100.000,000. Ihis oc- j curred in 1891 when there were 106,000,000 sheep in the country. How- j ever, in the next ten years the numbers were reduced until in 1902-3 there were only about 60,000,000 sheep. Two years ago the number again exceeded 100.000. and at the end of this vear it is almost certain that there will | be in Australia 115,000,000 sheep. If j prices of wool and meat were good, and prolific seasons continued, this would be most satisfactory. At present it would appear that immediately a poor season occurs it will be necessary to slaughter about 15,000,000 sheep and then endeavour to save the remaining 100.000. animals. It is probable, says Mr Maidment, that the average number of sheep and lambs exported annually from Australia for the last ten years was about 3,000,000, but this represents no increase compared with the exports of thirty Years ago. New Zealand, where mutton and lamb exports have received considerable attention, exports 7,500,000 to 9,000,000 sheep and lambs annuallv from an aggregate number of 30.000. sheep. This represents 25 to 30 per cent, of the sheep population, whereas in Australia the exports amount only to 3 per cent., or at most 3i per cent. He asks whether it would not bo possible to begin a trade with the East in c-beap meat by selling old owes to a cannery for export.

AUSTRALIAN STOCK EXCHANGES Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, December 21. The operations on the Stock Exchange to-day were brighter, and prices of general industrial stocks were much firmer, while the improvement hi giltedged stocks which was noticeable at the beginning of the week was wt II maintained. The following sales were made: — Bank of New South Wales, £3O; Mercantile Mutual Insurance, 17s 6d; Colonial Sugar, £53 ss; Howard Smith, 8s 9d; Burns, Philp, 48s; Tooth’s, 34s 10$d ; Australian Glass, 44s 3d; Henry -Jones, 375; Goldsbroughs, 24s 3d; Greater J. D. Williams, 4s 6d. The Exchange will close for the holidays tomorrow at noon until January 5. MELBOURNE, December 21. Dunlop Perdriau, 16s 9d; ditto (pref.), 32s 9d; Australian Glass (pref.), 32s 3d; Taranaki Oil, 2s 4d; Zinc Corporation, 27s 6d; Broken Hill Proprietary, 25s 9d. • LIFE ASSURANCE POLICIES INTEREST ON LOANS An important point dealt with in the recent amendment of the National Expenditure Adjustment Act related to loans on 'life assurance policies. It appears that it was the intention of the Government to place such loans on the same basis as mortgages of land, but that the Act did not clearly carry that intention into effect. Considerable doubt was thus left in the minds of the life offices as to the proper and, equitable method of treating policy loan accounts, having regard to the interest of the great majority of policy-holders who have not borrowed on their policies, .as well as those of the small minority who have done so. The amending Act has now - clarified the position, and the manager, of the A.M.P, Society states that, so far as that institution is concerned, it is intended to adjust all such loan accounts back to April 1 last, whether application by the policyholder concerned is made, as required by the Act, or. not. All accounts affected will be credited automaticallv with the rebate of interest without any application on the part of the borrower.

Quotations as under Buyers, Sellers. £ s. d. £ s. d. BANKING— Bank of New South Wales ' ... 26 0 0 27 0 0 Bank of New Zealand 2 0 6 ■ — Commercial Banl* ... 0 13 6 — . National Bank of N.Z. (cum div.) ... ,3 5 0. 3 7 0 Union Bank'of Australia Ltd. ..j ... , •7 10 0 INSURANCE— National Insur. Co. ... 0 14 3 South ’ British Insurance Co. ... ... ... 2 13 0 2 17 0 _ Standard Insur. Co. ' — 2 9 0 SHIPPING— ! . .. Huddart, Parker (pref.) ... ' 0 18 9 ’ — ; Pi and' 0. Def. Stock — 10 0 U.S.S. Co. (pref.) ... 1 0 0 ■ — COAL— Kaitangata Coal 'o 0 6p Westport Coal Co. ... 0 10 6 0 12 0 Westport-Stockton (ord.) ... ... ... . _ 0 10 Westport-Stockton (pref.) ... , _ 0 1 6 LOAN AND AGENCY— Goldsbrough, Mort ... — 1 2 0 National Mortgage ... ~ — 1 17 6 National Mortgage (“ B ” issue) ... ... 014 6 0 18 .6 Perpetual Trustees ... 3 0 ,0 Trustees, Executors, and Agency 2 17 0 ■ — ' ' MEAT PRESERVING— N.Z. Refrigerating (paid) 0 9 9 N.Z., Refrigerating > (cont.) ... 0 2 11 , Southland Frozen Meat (paid) ... ! 1.18 0 — , MISCELLANEOUS— Australian Glass 1 15 6 British Tobacco (cum div.) 1 7 0 _ .Brown, Ewing (pref.) — 0 19 0 Bruce Woollen Co. (ord.) ... 0 10 0 D.I.C. (ord.) 0 9 3 — D.I.C. (pref.) Donaghy’s Kbps and Twine ... .;. ... 0 17 6 0 19 0 1 10 0 v ■ Kauri Timber — 0 12 6 Milburn Lime and Cement 16 0 Mosgiel Woollen Co. 6 14 0 — M‘Leod Bros. ... ... 22 10 0 —■ National Electric . ... 0 5 9 0 8 0 N.Z. Drug Co. ... ... 2 14 6 2 18 0 N.Z. Express (ord.) — 0 8 0 N.Z. Farmers’ Fertiliser ■ ... 0 13 0 _ N.Z. Paper Mills . ... * Otago Daily Times ’ 1 0 0 113 ■1 19 0 — Smith and Smith (pref.) 0 10 0 Wilson’s (N.Z.) . Cement _ 19 0 BREWERIES— N.Z. Breweries Ltd. 1 4 0 1 5 0 N,Z. Breweries Deb. 1 0 0 — , Dunedin Brewery — 13 6 OIL— Moturoa 0 3 9 0 4 6 MINING— Kawarau 0 0 4 0 0 7 Waihi 0 18 6 — Waihi Grand function ... ... 0 3 6 Electrolytic Zinc (def. ord.) 0 15 0 Mount Lyell 0 18 3 — Broken Hill South (cum dir.) ... ... 1 19 0 2 10 Molyneux Electric i.. — 0 5 0 Mahakipawa — 0 0 5 Kildare 0 1 9 0 2 0 Okarito 0 8 6 0 8 7 Paddy’s Point 0 5 0 0 5 4 Cornish Point 0 0 24 0 0 4A Golden Progress ■ ... — 0 1 10 •King Solomon (cum - div.) ...’ 0 2 3 0 2 7 Golden Point 0 0 24 0 0 34 Gillespie’s Beach 0 0 Zip 0 0 34p Waitahu 0 0 9p 0 0 lOp Golden Sands 0 1 10 0 2 3 Big River 0 1 0 0 12 Mount David — 0 3 6 Nokomai 0 5 8 0 5 10