Commerce, Mining, & Finance

Evening Star, Issue 21689, 7 April 1934, Page 11

Commerce, Mining, & Finance

AUSTRALIAN STOCK EXCHANGES

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, April 6. On .the Stock Exchange general industrial issues were steady. Commonwealth bonds are still advancing, while the turnover in the mining section , was almost a record in proportions, the demand for Eastern Tin shares is most persistent, and London buying orders are believed to . be. still -in the market for . concerns ■in tile alluvial tin group. Additional sales were:— Bank of New South Wales, £34 15s; Sommercial ■ Bank of Sydney, £l7 los, olonial Sugar, ■ £65 14s; Australian Provincial Assurance, 10s 6d: Mercantile Mutual Insurance, 22s 3d ; Associated • Nows, 22s 9d; Associated News (pref ) 23s 4§d; British Tobacco, Afs oar.'Tooth's, 43s 3d; Tochers. 2/s 10} d ; Henry .Tones,, 34s 3d; Millaquin Sugar, 295; Lustre Hosiery, 24s 3d; |W. R. Carpenter, 41s 6d; Bulolo Gold,, |e7 2s 6d; Bulolo Deposits, 2s; Broken Hill Proprietary, 46s 3d; South Broken Hill, 70s 6d; Rawang Tin, 9s; DLarut, 14s 6d; Tongkah Ed; Malim Nawar, 16s 3d; Kuala Kampar, 16s 3d; Placer Development, Jias 7s 6d.

MELBOURNE, April 6. Commercial Bank (pref.), £9 12s; National Bank (£5 paid), £6 10s; Dunlop Perdriau, 19s lid; Metropolitan Gas, £l3 17s; ‘Herald’ and f Times,’ 52s 3d; North Broken Hill, P2s; Goldsbrough, Mort, 33s 6d.

METAL MARKET

£r*u Attociation-By Telegraph—Copyright,

V? v LONDON, April 5. ' The following are the official metal jqubtaticms Copper.—Standard, £32 18s IJd pel ion; forward, £33 3s lid. . Electrolytic.—Spot, £35 los; forward, £36 ss. Wire' bars, £36 ss. Lead.—Spot, £ll 11s 3d; forward, ieil 18s 9d. ■ ; Spelter.—Spot, £l4 17s 6d; forward, leis ss. .; ■ Tin.—Spot, £335 12s 6d; forward, $235 2s 6d. ■ - Pig Iron.—Home trade, £3 7s 6d. Anxirnoriy.-—British, £39 10s; foririgit, £24 15s. . Silver.—Standard, 20d per oz; fine, 21 9-16 d. Molybdenite. £1 16s. Wolfram, £1 17s. |

CANTERBURY MARKETS

Business shows little life. The holiday adjournment was expected to stimulate some activity after merchants’ offices opened, but it has been negligible so far. Potatoes are the only product creating a slightly improved inquiry. More North Islaifd interest is being displayed, and a few lots are going forward. Auckland advices are to the effect that supplies are nearly Exhausted, and southern potatoes;, win Jba wanted in fair quantities-'shortly." yalues locally remain practically the same as before the holidays. Prompt .whites'are worth £4 2s 6d to £4 os, f.0.b., s.i., and Dakotas 85s to 87s 6d. There is little business between groovers and merchants. The former anticipate that the market will not' 'ease-, and the latter are awaiting the actual demand from Auckland, ■ , ; Fowl wheat is quoted at 3s 4Jd, f.0.b., 5.e,,. for prompt - shipment, and 3s 5d to 3s 6d for spread. Oats show no change. ' Partridge peas are quoted at 4s Id, f.0.b., s.i. Milling wheat earns an increment' of tone penny per, bushel, commencing .with this month. The seed market for autumn sowing, It practically over; and the volume of business has been disappointing. Stocks are very firmly held, and prices are unaltered. Ryegrass is worth 3s" to 3s 6d per bushel, f.0.b., s.i. ■ Akaroa cocksfoot 9d to lOd per ]b; cow grass, to 9d lb, and white clover Is to Is 3d. i—Press Association.

ROOSEVELT'S POLICY

PROSPECTS OF “ HEW DEAL M The New York correspondent of the * London Financial News ’ .takes a pessimistic view of President Roosevelt's monetary policy. .Writing on January. 25, he says:— ’ f ’ “The future' of the country was never more doubtful'than it is to-day. To the excessive' ' outlays that are planned and are being made must be added, the wholly uneconomic way in which loans are being floated and taxation laid upon a very small class, thus exhausting their purchasing power, and, above all, the destruction of the banking system through political manipulation and debauchment that is now .well under way. All these factors together make up a terrible impeachment of the national policies, and pojnt clearly to the day of reckoning which cannot be delayed indefinitely, though j,t may be held off for a number of months if proper measures of prolongation be applied.”

THE SEARCH FOR GOLD

74 OUHGES IN THREE DAYS The wash-up at the King Solomon mine for throe days’ work totalled 740 ■/. 4dwt.— Press Association.

BELL-KILGOUR DEVELOPMENT The secretary of the Bell-Kilgour Gold Mining Company Ltd. advises that the wash-up for the week ended April 6 amounted to lOoz sdwt from development work. ,r.:ysaAY creek company The report of the Murray Creek Gold Mining Company Ltd; for the month of March is as follows : —r The reopening and repairing of Nos. 2,3, and 4 levels south has been carried on steadily. In No. 2 level, south drive, the progress for the month was 50ft, making the total 1,750 ft south of the shaft. In No. 3 level, south drive, the progress was 160 ft, making the progress 1,220 ft south of the shaft. In No. 4 level, south drive, the progress was 90ft, making the total 830 ft south of the shaft. One shift only has been worked during the month. No. 4 level continues to be in a very bad state, making progress slow, but No. 3 level is much improved, enabling faster progress to be made. Only a few shifts have been worked in No. 2 level. During the incoming month a second shift will be employed in No. 4 level. The north driye on the Inglewood. Reef from the No. 3 level was advanced 30ft north of the main crosscut, of which 14ft is on reef averaging 27in wide. Fine gold, can be seen occasionally in the lode, which is very solid, well defined, and looks promising. In order to develop this reef more rapidly a second shift has been started driving on lode. FOUR DWT ORE . NOW PROFITABLE In his address at the annual meeting of the Chamber,of Mines of Western Australia, the President (Mr R. D. Hamilton) said that in 1929 the industry had reached its lowest production of tonnage and gold value since 1903.' The year 1930 showed an increase in both tonnage and value, and since that year the increase had continued, due mainly to the abnormal increase in the price of gold valued in Australian, currency. . The average grade of the ore treated during 1933 was B.l6dwt, the ■ lowest average for any year since, gold mining began in the State, but with gold :at its present price a grade of ore of 4dwt assay value, when in sufficient .quantity, easily accessible bn a ✓properly equipped mine, was now profitable. .. . 1 MAORI GULLY OPERATIONS A contract has been entered into by ‘the r;dicectors*pf the,. Maori -Gully; Golc} Dredging Company " for the construction of a dredge to work the company’s claim at Kokiri (West Coast). The dredge will be an entirely new' one( with the ladder,-tumblers, bucket line to .be provided by the English steel manufacturing-firm of Hadfield’s. _ The bucket lino will be of-the close-linked type,, and will comprise seventy-one buckets, made of manganese steel. The machine, which will dredge to; a depth of 35ft, will have a -capacity of 50,000 cubic yards a month; Ari immediate commencement is to be made with the execution of the contract. Access to the claim is especially favourable, as the plant, totalling over 400 tbns, will bo transferred from Stillwater by Stratford and Blair’s tramline ■to .the dredge site, one mile -and a-half distant. The contract also provides for the erection of an electric pow-er line from the Grey Valley Power .Board’s line at Stillwater. The claim was very closely bored,, thirty-eight holes being put down,- revealing average values -of Is 6d a yard over an average depth of 24ft to 25ft. , WEST COAST MINING At the annual meeting of Gracow Gold,N.L., an Australian mining company, Mr H. Hanson, a referred to two properties in New Zealand in which the company was interested. The first property, known as Gillam’s, was two or three miles distant from the property of Stafford Gold Dredging N.L., Hokitika, and promised to be a- dredging area, he said. Roma Blocks Company, N.L., Gold Holdings, N.L., Gold Dredging Option, N.L., and Gracow Gold, N.L., were interested, and arrangements had been made to bore the area, the cost to be borne proportionately by the companies. Gracow Gold, N.L., had the right to take up 30,000 shares, or ten shares for each share held, in any flotation. Gold Dredging Option, N.L., and Gracow Gold, N.L., had decided to test an area of sands at Greymonth, known as MacLeod’s and Sullivan’s, and known to contain gold. This area also would bo prospected. Should the formation of a company be warranted, Gracow Gold, N.L., would be entitled to take up 30,000 out of 90.000 shares.

• THE GOLDFIELDS DREDGE The secretary of the Goldfields Dredging Company Limited reports that the dredge is making good headway towards the Upper Gorge, and that there was no wash-np this week. BELL HILL SLUICING From the date of the last wash-up seventeen days have been spent in sluicing, in which time seventy hours’ top and 101 hours’ bottom water were used. ' The manager washed up on March 30, and obtained 38oz. The wash-up did not include that portion from the fables to the jump-up. The top face is to be pushed back during the coming month, and a start will be made to open up the tunnel in the vicinity of George’s Creek. A race has been out to bring Growler’s Creek water into the head race. ALEXANDER MINES The statement of affairs of Alexander Mines Ltd., published in the ‘ Gazette,’ supplies the following particulars Amount of capital subscribed, j£75,000; capital paid-up in cash, £31,050; paidup value of scrip given to shareholders on which no cash has been paid, £29,000; called up per ,share, 13s 6d; present number of shareholders, 349; average number of men employed lor 1933, 51; total quantity and value of gold produced in 1933, 4,0270 z 18dwt, valued at £28,103 9s 3d; total quantity and value of gold produced since registration, 21,856,2230 z, valued at £115,441 12s 2d; amount expended in carrying on operations during 1933, £20,488 4s 9d; amount expended in carrying on operations since registration, £110,730 Is 8d; total amount of dividends declared, nine, of Is a share; total amount of dividends paid, £33,750. The following is the report for the month' of March :

Mine.—Owing to a strike of the employees no work has been carried out in the mine for the period. The staff has been employed on the lower excavation for the powei; house and installing the machinery for working the rabblers and self-feeding apparatus for the new ore-roasting furnace. A rough track has also been cut from the battery to the lower power house station to enable the pipes' and machinery to be landed on the site.

, Wages Disputel—The employees, through the Miners’ Union, made a demand for an increase in wages of 10 per cent, on, the existing rates paid undgr the Arbitration Act award. Later . a conference was held between representatives of the company and the employees, the demand not being agreed to. On February 7, a stopwork meeting was held over two men who were discharged. This meeting caused a suspension of work in the mine, battery, and race for twenty-four hours, the meeting itself lasting about two' hours.' On February 27 another stop-work meeting was held, the mine and the battery again being idle. At this meeting tlio men decided to go on strike until their demands were acceded to. A conference was held on March 29 between both parties, no settlement being arrived at. The award rate of wages paid for the two principal classes of work is: Miners, 17s 4d; labourers, 16s 4d per shift of eight hours.