MONETARY AND COMMERCIAL

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10275, 17 February 1894, Page 5

MONETARY AND COMMERCIAL

J [Special to Pbesb Association.! LONDON, Feb. 15, ! At a meeting of shareholders in the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand, Mr H. E. Grenfell, chairman, said that investments were being temporarily reduced. A call of JSI would probably be shortly made. The liquidation of the Bank of South Australia is being brought to a close. It is expected that a call of .£1 will be made, and that, with the help of the sum thus derived, the assets will fully meet the liabilities. The weekly returns of the Bank of England published to-day show the total reserve to be .£21,268,000, and the proportion of reserve to liabilities 59 per cent. 6 Three months bills are discounted at 1| per cent. New Zealand 4 per cent inscribed stock, 10; 3| per cent do, 98|. New Zealand frozen mutton, second quality, 4|d per lb; lamb, first quality, 6|d. < New Zealand hemp quotations unchanged. New Zealand long-berried wheat, ex warehouse, weaker, 28a 3d; South Australian, ex warehouse, also weaker, 295; Victorian ditto, 28s 6d. Sugar-German beet, 13s 3£d; Java quiet at 15s 6d. No. 1 best Scotch pig iron, f.o.b. in the Clyde, steady at 43s 6d. Banish butter, 118 s per cwt. The Antwerp wool sales closed with no alteration of prices as compared with the opening rates. The total number of bales from the River Plate offered was.6ooo, of which 2500 were sold. There was not enough Australian offered to indicate prices. A newspaper in Cork predicts a banking crisis in Australia in March. The Eight Hon H. C. Gardner, President of the Board of Agricul- !! ture, in answer to a question in the House of Commons, said the Merchandise Marks Act was sufficient to prevent colonial meat being sold as English. [Pee Peess Association.] WELLINGTON, Feb. 16. I Mr Lowe reports that the London Butter j Committee has practically broken up i through the members underselling one j another. He suggests that factories should j set up London branches for themselves, j and store the butter so as to keep it on the | market nearly all the year round. He ! says that he has tasted butter kept for I nine months without depreciation. 'Mr | Lowe thinks that cheese, fruit and other ! things might be included. \ DUNEDIN, Feb. 16. j The Standard Insurance Company’s j annual report shows a credit balance of JJ15.969, from which the usual dividend S was paid in June. The ..directors now I recommend a dividend of per cent for the half-year ending Dec, 31, and a bonus of 2£ per cent. They also carry forward JS4OOO to the reinsurance reserve, and I .£4169 to next year.