EMPIRE'S GOLD PRODUCTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19027, 26 May 1925, Page 7

EMPIRE'S GOLD PRODUCTION.

70 PER CENT. OF WORLD OUTPUT. An article was lately published by a Toronto paper showing how the British Empire has supplanted tho United States as the premier gold producer of the world. In 1080 tho United States produced 34 per cent, of the world's output, while the British Empire only produced 29 per cent. To-day the positions are reversed, the Empire producing 70 per cent, and America only 14 per cent., tho remaining 16 per cent, Being scattered among a dozen countries. Canada is rapidly becoming a heayy gold producer and shows signs of supplanting the United States. Canadian production has increased from 1,000,000 dollars in 1891 to 31,500,000 dollars in 1924. Recent finds in Ontario have offset tho loss through the exhaustion of the Klondike fields. SHAREHOLDERS' . OBLIGATIONS. INTERESTS OF COMPANIES. It is sometimes urged at meetings of manufacturing companies that shareholders should support the organisation in which they are financially interested by the purchase, as far as possible, of the goods it produces. Commenting on this matter a Sydney paper says:—''Usually the average shareholder's interest is restricted to the declaration of dividends. In these days of keen competition and the introduction of new methods of doing business, shareholders owe certain obligations to the companies in which they are interested. i "Some pcoplo go so far as to assort that each shareholder should in effect be an unofficial commercial traveller for his firm, not to take orders but to extol its goods in the circle of his acquaintances." MARKETING OF MEAT. CONDITIONS AT SMITHFIELD. Mr. Arthur O. Manning, chairman of the Australian Meat Council, has received a letter from Mr. J. B. Cramsie, who is at present in London. Mr. Cramsie writes: "I have visited Smithfield market on two occasions, and am pleased to state that it has greatly improved since my former visit just prior to tho war. There certainly is a great improvement in the market and also in the meat, and one can hardly believe there is any market in the world where the consuming public can secure such a choice of moat as at Smithfield. The handling there at the present time appears to be excellent. "I was extremely disappointed to see the very large number, of frozen carcases ,of mutton with dingy stockinette covering, and, in many cases, bruised and knocked about. The Argentine mutton appears to me to arrive in very much better condition,"