DEMAND FOR MEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19952, 22 May 1928, Page 9

DEMAND FOR MEAT.

LONDON MARKET ACTIVE. GOOD INQUIRY FOR LAMBS. Latest reports from London indicate the market for frozen meat continues to be good, although the prices show little variation when compared with the rates ruling at the end of the week before last. The Bank of New Zealand has been advised that the market for wethers is more active owing to shorter supplies from the Argentine. Values for heavy wethers are shown to be higher at 5Jd to 6d, against to in the previous week. ihe market for ewes lias improved owing to short supplies, the prices being 4|d to s|d, compared with 4J,d to The' demand for lambs is good and is likely to continue so. The only change on previous quotations is for eights, which have advanced a farthing to 9|d to 9£d. The report adds that the prospects for beef are more favourable. Following are the quotations ruling at the end of last week: —Wethers, light, to 7vjd per lb; heavy, s£d to 6d; ewes, to lambs, 9jd to lOd; eights, to fours, B£d to B|d; seconds, 9d to 9^d; ox hinds, 4=jd to sjd;. fores, to 3Jd; cow hinds, 4£d to fores, 3jd to. 3£d. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, has received a cablegram from its London house giving the following frozen meat quotations:—Lamb, 9£d per lb; mutton, wether and maiden ewe, light, 6|d; heavy, 6d; ewes, light, s£d; heavy, There is a good demand. RECORD EXPORT OF FRUIT. THE HAWKE'S BAY SEASON. • 1 1 [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] HASTINGS. Monday. ' The Hawke's Bay fruit export season closed to-day. The quantity for export was 162,009 cases of apples and 32,826 cases of pears, a grand total of 194,835 cases. Of the apples, about 21,000 cases went to South America. Last year the exports totalled 64,716 cases. The amount exported this year approximately equals the quantity exported in the preceding five years.

OVERSEAS WHEAT POSITION. REVIEW OF PROSPECTS. "Until the recent speculative excitement which resulted from deterioration of the United States winter wheat crops became pronounced, there had been a steady increase in the price of wheat. This was due mainly to a renewal of demands by importing countries," says the Melbourne Argus, "and Australian wheat was in favour among British millers at a premium in price. In the early part of March European buyers were outstanding in the market, and there was scarcely a country in the Continent of Europe which was not operating freely owing to the poor condition in which much of the harvest there was garnered. " Spain had figured as a buyer, and Dutch, Belgian, and other Northern European countries, as well as several Mediterranean ports, had been absorbing wheat readily. This meant that heavy shipments from Argentina had failed to depress the market. Holdings of the Canadian wheat pool were heavy. The pool had -been given the credit for holding back supplies as much as possible to bring about higher prices of wheat, but while at times Canadian grain was a little short in London there had been sufficient to go round. London opinion was that the pool in Canada was unlikely to carry stocks into the next cereal year, and risk depressing prices in the autumn."

WILSONS (N.Z.) CEMENT, LTD

DIVIDEND OF 10 PER CENT. The tenth annual report of Wilsons (N.Z.) Portland Cement, Limited, to be presented at the annual meeting of shareholders on June 11, states that the net profit for the year, after making arable prol*rion for depreciation, bad debts imd taxes, is ,(188,245 7s sd. The balance brou/*ht forward from last year was £57.420 18s 2d and of this amount £30.000 was absorbed in the payment of the interim dividend, leaving £115,666 5s 7d available for appropriation.

I'lie directors recommend that this should be disposed of as follows:—Payment of a dividend at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum, absorbing £60,000, less the interim dividend of £30,000 distributed last November; transfer to reserve account, £25,000, leaving a balance of £60,666 5s 7d to be carried forward. The retiring directors are Messrs. T. Simson, G. Winstone and H. Is. Williams, who aro eligible and offer themselves for re-election. Following is a comparison of the company's results for the last three years:— 1925-{!6 1926-27 1927-23 Brought forward £52,801 £54,212 £57,421 Net profits . . 5G.4111 88,208 88,245 £139,212 £142,421 £145.606 Dividend, 10 p.c. 60.000 60.000 60,000 To reserve . . 25,000 25,000 25,000 Carried forward £54,212 £57,421 £60,666 Items on the balance-sheet are as follow, corresponding figures for the previous year being given in parentheses:—Assets: Land, limestone deposits, buildings and pJant, £406,911 (£422,877); stocks of cement, lime, stores, etc., £66,132 (£27,360); sundry debtors, £56,950 (£96,237); Wilson Collieries, Limited, and Government inscribed stock, £317,264 (£271,611); cash and bank balances, £19,133 (£47,130); total assets, £866,391 (£865,216). The liabilities include:— Capital, £600,000 (£600.000); creditors, including provision for income tax, £70,358 (£104,039); marine insurance account, £30,367 (£23,756); reserve, £50,000 (£25,000). WESTERN AUSTRALIAN WHEAT. NEXT SEASON'S PROSPECTS. Jti certain portions of the Northern wheat belts of Western Australia the first rains of the year were experienced toward the end of March, it possible for farmers to commence operations in preparing land for seeding. The first of the seasonal rains, embracing practically the whole of the south-western division of the State, tvere experienced during tho third week in April, The . regularity of the arrival of the winter rain-bear-ing systems is a feature of the State's climatic conditions, and one that has made a most important contribution to the success that has attended wheat growing in Western Australia. With the advent of the rains after the long dry summer, far-j mers are able to proceed with the assurance that, at least until September, they .will have a minimum of anxiety. The bad year, 1914-15, is so far in tho past, and the State's wheat production was then so small compared with the production of to-day, that farmers have almost come to regard a favourable season as an assured factor in their calculations. Many farmers from the eastern Slates, who have been attracted to Western Australia recently, have admitted that the reliability of the rainfall in that State during the growing period was larp;ely responsible for the decision to mig v ate West, because it made farming less of a gamble than in other parts, where seasonal vagaries are much more pronounced.