PILLAGING THE PEOPLE

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 294, 18 October 1922, Page 4

PILLAGING THE PEOPLE

Coal Company's 73 per cent. Nett Profit

YET MINERS' WAGES ARiS CUT TO " REDUCE THE PRICE OP COAL.''

A kind friend-has thoughtfully supplied The Maoriland Worker with the Twelfth Annual Report and Balance-sheet of Pukemiro Collieries, Ltd., and from this we hasten to select a few choice pickings for the public consumption. The balance-sheet sets-out the financial situation of the company as at August 31,1922, and shows what a handful Of profiteers can do in a year of slump and stringency when they put their shoulders, to the wheel;

! The 'chairman of Pukemiro Collieries is Mr. J. Catchpole, and in [his report he avers that the balance-sheet "again shows a very satis-. [factory position," and with the document before us we agree that [this is unquestionably the truth. We also note that the "Directors i have deemed it advisable to purchase a.freehold site on Anme Avenue" for the erection of permanent offices, a decision which, we consider, beautifully conforms with the proprieties, for, as we have frequently remarked, patriotism goes well with profits. The share capital of the company consists of 60,000 shares of £1 each, all of which are paid up. The assets total £110,000 odd, so that in the 12 years of its lucrative existence the company (the miners, of ; course, should get no credit for this) has added- 83 per cent, to its ■£60,000, to say nothing of the juicy -dividends the shareholders gathered unto their bosoms during that space of time. Among the assets is an item of £18,536 to "N.Z. War Loan," a proof that the country, in its hour of peril, will never lack defenders —at 4 J per cent, free of income tax. Two items in the Profit and Loss Account transfix us. Apart ;from rates, the smallest payment on the disbursements side is on aclcount of Miners' Relief Fund, viz., £249 os. lid.; and the largest—Balance carried forward to appropriation account (to whack up in dividends, etc.)—stands at £44,649. Now, this latter amount, THE NETT PROFIT FOR THE YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31 LAST, IS MORE THAN 73 PER CENT. ON THE TOTAL CAPITAL INVESTED. This in a "bad" year, too! How sweet for the shareholders to be thus rewarded for their industry and abstinence! But it is when we come to the Appropriation (we love to linger ;on this word) Account that our mouths water and our imaginations 'dwell-upon, a blissful affluence. To the £44,649 nett profit was added a balance of £13,817 carried forward from 1921, making, altogether, for the purpose of the ''great divide," £58,466, a sum just on 100 per cent, on all the paid-up capital. ■ How was this amount apportioned? In the manner following:—.Provision for taxation £16,000. Depreciation written off £1,635 Interim dividend - £6,000 Balance carried tit balance-sheet £34,830 ; The interim dividend of. £6,000 works out at 10 per cent. And from the £34,830 THEY PAID ANOTHER DIVIDEND AND BONUS EQUAL TO 25 PER CENT-, and then had nearly £20,000 to carry ior- ■ ward to next year. - In the slump year, then, Pukemiro Collieries, Ltd., paid a di\ iacrid 'of 35 PER CENT. ALL TOLD (equal to 45 per cent, at least, ouing to fall in the cost of living), put aside for taxation another Riim ;equivalent to a dividend of 261 per cent.., and then had enough ioft over (if it is not spent on the offices in Anzac Avenue) to GUARANTEE THE PAYMENT OF 30 PER CENT. DIVIDEND NEXT YEAR, EVEN IF THE COMPANY MAKES NOT A SOLITARY PENNY OF PROFIT! . . . God help us, but they've had a rare rake-off. And as if this : were not enough, Mr. Massey, his heart bleeding for the pore hard--working shareholders, brings down a Bill TO REDUCE THEIR INCOME TAX while the Arbitration Court, oozing with unction and statistics, CUTS THE MINERS' WAGES THRICE THIS YEAR- to "lower the cost of coal to'the consumer.' . What a Thieves' Kitchen is '. the Capitalist system of society • Conic* let us profane together! \ PROFITS, NOT WAGES, MUST COME DOWN.