COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 13950, 5 January 1909, Page 3

COMMERCIAL.

NEW ZEALAND LOAN AND MERCANTILE AGENCY COMPANY. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, November 27. The report of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, to be submitted at the meeting to take place on the 3rd prox., is just out. The directors state that after paying interest on the prior lien, second and third debenture stocks, and adding £35,000 to reserve accounts (bringing up the same to £250,000), there remains to credit of profit and loss, including the balance brought, forward from last year, the sum of £6624. The directors recommend that £6429 shall be applied in payment of a dividend at the rate of 5 per cent, per annnm (less income tax), and that the balance of £195 be carried forward. Pursuing the policy adopted last year they have transferred to capital re- i serve account a further sum of £50,000 arising out. of surplus realisations of properties handed over by the old company, thereby increasing that account to £150,000. Parts of Australia during the past year have suffered somewhat severely from want of rain, but recent telegraphic ad"vices are reassuring, as good rains have fallen generally throughout the States of the Common, wealth. Adverse weather conditions prevailed in New Zealand early in the year, the greater part of the Dominion having been visited by ii prolonged drought, and in the North Island bush fires proved destructive. According to latest advices, however, there is now every prospect of a good season. Values of wool ruled at a low level during the early months of the year, but have since to some extent recovered, and the present position of the market is more encouraging. The New Zealand Land Association for the year ended March 31, 1908, has declared and paid a dividend of 5 per cent, on its paid-up share capital, carrying forward the balance of £11,205. Out of the surplus arising from realisations of properties the association has also placed to its capital reserve account the sum of £10,000, thereby raising that account to £85,000. LONDON FINANCIAL JOTTINGS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, November 27. A Bill is to be promoted next, session for the construction of docks in the neighbourhood of Plymouth for the accommodation of the largest Atlantic liners. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and the Allan line are negotiating for the establishment of a combined land and ocean service between England and points in Canada. New steamers will be built and the winter terminus of the Allan line will he transferred from Portland (Maine) to St. John, New Brunswick. Lord Strathcona has been informed by cable from the Minister of the Interior at Ottawa that the Canadian Pacific Railway Company has shipped 32,500,000 bushels of wheat up to the 7th inst., as against 12,4450,000 bushels up to the same date last year. The season's hay and root crop is estimated to be worth nearly 200,000,000 dollars. There have been 24,000 homestead entries during September and October last, as compared with less than 5000 in the same months of 1907. A further decline in the earnings of the railways of the United Kingdom is shown by the usual table of weekly traffics appearing in the issue of the Railway News for November 27. The total receipts of the 52 leading companies amount to £1,950,700, a decrease of £40,400, which is on a more reduced scale, fortunately, than has been the case for a month past. The 36 companies whose returns distinguish the different classes of revenue indicate a gain of £5400 in passenger earnings and a decline of £44,000 in goods takings. This is an improving showing for passenger traffic, which in the previous two weeks exhibited a falling off. The aggregate returns for th-> current half-year to date for all lines amount to £45,833.600. or a decrease of £1,045.500. Coaching and mixed receipts have gone up to £257,600 and £88,300 respectively, while freight revenue has dropped to the extent of £1,391,400. At the Staffordshire Iron and Steel Institute, Dudley, Mr. Harold Jeans read a paper on " The World's Export Trade in Iron and Steel and its Regulations." Referring to American dumping tactics lie said: The experience of the last fewyears seems to show that, it is a fallacy to assume that a. permanent foothold is secured by merely quoting lower prices for a time. The American exports, rising rapidly from 203,000 tons in 1896 to 1,154,000 tons in 1900. fell rapidly to 326,000 tons in 1903. During the last two years they have averaged, about. 1,300,000 tons. Of this, however, rails make up nearly 350,000 tons, on which commodity there is an international agreement. If the. United States were able, to double, or even quadruple, their exports the orders so secured would not keep her works going. The decrease in American domestic business in 1908, compared with either 1906 or 1907, is greater in quantity than the world's entire exchange of iron and steel. If America has taken all the export orders offered for international competition this vear it would not have made up that decrease. " It is confirmed that an English syndicate has signed a contract with a Russian group to finance a new railway in Siberia to connect Semipalatinek and Tomsk. The projected line will be of the highest importance to the mining industry, as it is to pass through the rich auriferous districts of the Altai. The statutes of the new company are now awaiting the sanction of the Ministry' of Finance, and are expected to be published "shortly. LONDON. By Telegraph.—Press Association—Copyright. London, January 3. FROZEN MEAT, The Frozen Meat Trade Association's Smithfleld market quotations for the undermentioned classes of frozen meats, based on actual sales of not less than 100 carcases of mutton or lamb, or 25 carcases of beef, of fair average quality (these quotations are not for selected lines, but for parcels fairly representative of bulk of shipments' now on the market), are as follows:—New Zealand sheep: Crossbred wethers and maiden owes—Canterbury, light, 4811) to 561b, and medium, 561b to 641b, 3 a d; Canterbury, heavy, 641b to 721b, 3Jd; Southland, 561b to 641b, 33d; North Inland, 551b to 651b, 3 9-l6d (best brands 33d). New Zealand lambs: Canterbury, light and medium, none offering; Canterbury, heavy, 361b to ! 421b 41d ; Southland and North Island, none offering New- Zealand beef—Ox fores. 1801b to 2201b?'3id; ox hinds, 1801b to 2201b, 3Jd. River Plate sheep, 3 l-16d. Beef; Fores, 3d; hinds, 32-J. Rabbits are firm. Best Sydney, 17s 6d. MISCELLANEOUS. Hemp is dull. January-March shipments, £25. Copra is quiet, with fair business. South Sea, in bags, £18 10s. Tin: Stocks, 20,554 tons; on spot, 8669 tons; afloat. 4038 tons; deliveries, 2257 tons. Tallow: Stock, 4456 tons; imports, 1726 tons; deliveries, 2102 tons. — - —