COLONIAL MUTUAL EIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21347, 23 November 1932, Page 7

COLONIAL MUTUAL EIRE

LARGER SURPLUS SHOWN

REDUCTION OF DIVIDEND

A larger surplus is shown in llic accounts of the Colonial Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Limited, Melbourne, for the year ended September 30. The surplus on underwriting is £9524, compared with £4514 for the preceding year, and the net profit for the year is £28,273, against £24,635. The rate of dividend has been reduced from 5 per cent to 3$ per cent for tho year, but the? company is able to carry forward £40,490 in undivided profits, which should secure tlfe payments of dividends for several years. Although profits are larger, tho amount distributed has been reduced, and the amount carried forward has been increased by £12,217.

HOYTS THEATRES LOSS

AMALGAMATION OF INTERESTS

A loss of £11,039 for the year ended Juno 30 is reported by Hoyts Theatres, Limited, Melbourne, compared with a net profit of £4341 in the previous year. Undivided profits, after eliminating the loss fur the year, amount to £54,376, and out of this a payment of £4200 is made to Picture Investments Proprietary, Limited, and of £750 in dividends to guaranteed C preference shareholders, leaving £49,426 to bo carried forward. Dividends on the cumulative preference shares have not been paid since 1930, and arrears amount to £136,000.

The directors direct attention to the heavy taxation paid by the company. Additional amusement taxation in Victoria has affected receipts and the company is liable for heavy land tax, although its properties are showing a loss. Since the close of the financial year General Theatres Corporation of Australia, Limited, has been formed to take over and conduct the city theatres of the company and of Greater Union Theatres, Limited. The new company is owned and controlled equally by Hoyts Theatres and Greater Union Theatres. The suburban and country theatres of,tho company are not affected directly. Approval of the shareholders of the merger will be sought at the annual meeting of the company on November 24.

CHRISTCHURCH PROPERTY

WAREHOUSE PASSED IN

A three-storey warehouse building, formerly occupied by Butterworth Bros., Limited, in Lichfield Street, Christchurch, was offered at auction last week. The property, which according to the auctioneer is worth between £12,000 and £15,000, was passed in at £7OOO. Bidding started at £5500 and, after £6OOO was offered, the bids increased by £250 to the final figure. It was stated that the unimproved value of the land alone was £5700. Tho warehouse property of Butterworth Bros., Ltd., in Dunedin, was offered at auction recently, and after one bid of £15,000 had been made, was passed in.

LIME COMPANY'S YEAR

SLIGHTLY REDUCED TURNOVER

/I ho report of tjio Mauricevillo Lime Company, Limited (Masterton), discloses a not profit from the lime business of £233, while earnings from investments totalled £456. increasing (he credit in the profit and los.s account to £2409. A dividend of 6 p"r cent, is recommended.

■Sales of lime were only 500 tons lower at 8800 tons than those of the previous year, reduced prices and increased allowances to shareholders allowing them to buy at as low as 12s 9jd a ton.

COMPANY AFFAIRS

INCREASE OF CAPITAL

New Zealand Tung Oil Corporation, Limited, lias increased its capital to £50,000 by the creation of 30,000 new £1 shares, of which 20,000 shall be ordinary and .10,000 preference shares carrying a cumulative preference dividend not exceeding 8 per cent on capital paid up. A. J. Eutrican and Company, Limited, has increased its capital by the creation of 10,000 A cumulative shares of £1 each. The authorised capital was £IOO,OOO, of which £79,392 was subscribed.

COMPANIES WINDING-UP

Dominion Spring and Engineerinc Company, Limited. W. Perry,' Auckland, public accountant, liquidator. James Ewington, Limited. D. R. Garrard, Auckland, public accountant, liquidator.

Empire W T ood Oil (N.Z.), Limited. L. A. W. Bagnell, liquidator.

INTEREST AND RENTS

AUSTRALIAN FIRM'S YEAR

Statutory reductions in rent and interest and some increases in expenditure due to higher taxation had resulted in a decrease of net income, said Mr. H. S. W. Lawson, chairman of directors of the Perpetual Executors and Trustees' Association of Australia, Limited, at the annual meeting in Melbourne. Mr. Lawson said that readjustment of obligations, by legislation and by mutual agreement, had gone on steadily during the year, and each separate transaction had helped the position of the country as a whole. People had suffered with patience interference with contractual rights and increases in taxation, such as had not been dreamt of a few years ago, realising that thoso things had been necessary for the common good to aid the recovery of the country. As a nation Australia might take credit for the spirit in which those things had been accepted, but they were not regarded as permanent. The country looked forward with confidence to the time when contracts would not bo interfered with and taxation would bo reduced so as to permit business dealings to follow their normal and uninterrupted course. In those, ways Governments could now |nake their maximum contribution toward a return to •more prosperous times. It should bo remembered that interference with contracts often reacted to the grea£ disadvantage of borrowers as well as lenders.

BRISBANE MUNICIPAL LOAN

£75,000 AT PER CENT

The Brisbane City Council has arranged with Messrs. J. B. Warn and Sons, of Melbourne, for the floating of a loan of £75,000, with an interest rate of per rent., for 15 years. An annual saving of £3094 will be effected. The loan is to repay a loan of £75,000 owing to the Commonwealth Bank, which is due for repayment at the end of tlio year. The Commonwealth Bank loan bore interest at the rate of 5£ per cent.

GOLDEN BAY CEMENT At the annual meeting' of the Golden Bay Cement Company, Limited, held in Wellington, Mr. F. R. Hogarth, chairman of directors, said that tho company, as with others connected with the, building industry, was passing through difficult times. The appointment to the board of directors of Mr. Vincent A. Ward was confirmed. Mr. George Shirtcliffe, the retiring director, was re-clected«