BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20242, 30 April 1929, Page 9

BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

MORTGAGE BRANCH RETURN.

TOTAL OF £659,000 IN LOANS.

Nearly the whole of the capital subscribed for the long-term mortgage department of tho Bank of New Zealand lias, according to tho latest statutory return, been absorbed by loans. Capital paid up amounts to £703,125, and loans existing during the March quarter averaged £659,085, leaving a balance of only £44,040. Authority to establish a special mortgage department, operating on tho amortisation principle, was granted by Parliament in 1926, provision being made for tho issue of 1,406,250 special preference shares of £1 each, and of debentures up to threp times the amount of the paidup capital. In September of that year the directors announced their decision to issue half the authorised number of shares, 234,375 to tho Government, and 468,750 to ordinary shareholders, on terms providing for payment by instalments up to Juno 30, 1928. Nine quarterly returns of the operations of the branch have now been issued. Until a year ago, less than half tho available capital was employed in loans on mortgage, the balance, in terms of the legislation, being employed in tho ordinary business of the bank. The last four returns have shown a progressive decline in the balance so transferred; the largest increase in tho amount of loans having been £172,534 between the June and tho September returns of last year. Tho latest total of loans, £659,085, is the average for the quarter, so that the actual amount advanced at March 31 was no doubt higher.

FERTILISER INDUSTRY.

AN AUSTRALIAN MERGER. THREE LARGE COMPANIES. A merger between the three largest fertiliser companies in Australia has just been announced, according to a private cablegram received in Auckland yesterday. The concerns affected aro the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, the Cum-ings-Smith Fertiliser Company, and Wischers, Limited. These companies control most of the fertiliser business of the Commonwealth. The only other considerable manufacturers aro the Cresco Fertiliser Company, a farmers' organisation with works in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and the West Australian Farmers' Fertiliser Company. The latter, however, is allied with the Mount Lyell Company.

The merger will have no direct effect upon the New Zealand industry, since the Dominion neither imports fertilisers from nor exports them to Australia. Those in the local trade are not surprised at the new*, because rumours of the negotiations have been current for some lime. One authority gave his opinion that the merger might lead to a linking-upof the Australian manufacture of fertilisers with Imperial Chemical Industries, the huge combine directed by Lord Melchett. The combine, he said, was believed to cherish a desire to establish its operations in the Australian industrial field, where one of its constituent companies, Nobel Industries, Limited, had carried on a large business in explosives for many years past. So far as he was aware it had made no overtures as yet to the New Zealand fertiliser manufacturers. SYDNEY WOOL SALES. GOOD GENERAL COMPETITION. Australian and N.Z. Presß Association. (Received April 29, 10.45 p.m.) SYDNEY. April 29. At i-iio Sydney wool sales to-day 10,342 bales -v7ero sold. The market was firm at last week's rates and there was good general competition. Greasy Merino sold to 27d. PAPER PULPING INDUSTRY. RELIANCE ON STATE BOUNTY. The half-yearly report of the Amalgamated Zinc Company states that technical investigations into the proposed establishment of a paper pulping industry w Tasmania, which have besn made by the subsidiary company, Tasmanian Paper Proprietary, Ltd., have been completed and attention is being given to confirmatory and complementary work. The chairman of the company is on his way to England, where he will deal with the company's business. In a recent interview Mr. Avery, general manager of Tasmanian Paper, stated that the technical problems in the manufacture of newsprint had been solved and the company was experimenting on some of tho finer class of paper. Meanwhile the commercial and economic side of the project was being carefully considered and some important problems in that direction needed solution before tho business could bo launched. The company, if it started operations, would have a minimum output of 60,000 tons of newsprint por annum and investigations had been carried on under the understanding that a Government bounty of £4 a ton would be payable on newsprint produced, in accordance with the Prime Minister's promise in 1925, which recently was confirmed. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. AMERICAN AND BRITISH. Engineering states that, in spite of tho depression ot agriculture in Britain, the output of agricultural implements is not only being maintained, but has shown a slight increase in the last year or two. The explanation no doubt is that the home market is comparatively limited at the best of times, and that the trade in agricultural machinery lias always been mainly an export one. This is undoubtedly a disadvantage in competing with nations possessing a largo homo market. The parallel of the motor-vohiclo industry of tho United States is at once brought to mind, sinco it has been stated almost ad nauseurn that the enormous homo market of that country enables her to build cars at a very low price, and that the saving in first cost is reflected in tho selling price on the foreign market. What is frequently overlooked, however, is that the large foreign trade in motor vehicles, enjoyed by tho United States, could never havo been built up unless tho cars were suitablo for the countries in which they were sold. Wo believe that this fact is now very generally appreciated by our own car manufacturers, but it is somewhat doubtful whether the same appreciation extends to all branches of the agricultural implement industry. In 1926, the last year for which complete figures are available, tho value of exports of such machinery from the United States | amounted to some £9,263,000, while that from tho United Kingdom was only about £1,323,000. These figures aro exclusive of tractors, of which the corresponding values wero £7,684,000 and £161,000. 1' or tho first 10 months of 1928, the exports of the United States had risen in value to £10,450,000, while the value of those from the United Kingdom—perhaps mercifully—is not available. Thcso very striking figures includo tractors for other than agricultural purposes, and a conjecture may bo hazarded that tho enormous difference between tho exports of tho two countries is duo in great part to the fact that a particular United States tractor has proved to meet, all reasonable requirements in all parts of tho world, including even the British Isles, nnd that, until extremely recently, this country has produced nothing to compare with it at all adequately on s performance-price basis.