SILVER ABANDONED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22318, 16 January 1936, Page 5

SILVER ABANDONED

MOVE MADE BY CHINA EFFECT ON THE MARKET ANOTHER SLUMP POSSIBLE Discussing the outlook for silver the National City Bank of New York refers to the abandonment of silver as a standard money by China. Thus the last of the groat countries adhering to silver as a monetary base has becu forced to desert that metal. The bank states that China has now n huge quantity of the metal which she can sell as freely as she wishes in world markets without injury to her internal credit structure. Should she elect to dispose of her vast silver hoards, the effect upon silver would be catastrophic. Either the United States Treasury would be forced to hold the bag, enabling China to unload aj* high prices, or see the whole scheme for raising silver prices go into collapse. When consideration is given to the depressing influence exerted upon silver prices from 1926 on by the stocks in the Indian Treasury, which never amounted to more than 470,000,000 ounces, it is i>ossible to visualise what it would mean to have China's 2,000,000,000 or so ounces overhanging the market. - No doubt it would be an exaggeration to assume that any such quantity of silver could or would be disposed of, at least, not for a considerable period. However, the fact is that a policy supposedly friendly to silver is having tho effect of giving the Chinese people an enforced education in the use of another form of currency, paper. To the extent that tho Chinese prove to be apt pupils in this schooling, by just so much will silver have one of its most important uses permanently curtailed. It has been claimed by friends of tho American silver policy that the raising and holding up of tho price of silver would encourage a wider use of the metal among nations. As a matter of fact, the reverse appears to be happening. As silver has been made moro costly, country after country, including at last China, has found it advantageous to discontinue its use as money. Unless the United States can persuade the other nations to use more silver money—something which thus far they have shown little disposition to do—before its buying power as defined in tho Silver Purchase Act is exhausted, it looks as though silver wore bonded eventually for another slump, possibly to levels lower even than before. In that event, not only will the silver producers pay dearly for this experiment, but the United States Treasury will be loft carrying an asset against the currency that could not be liquidated save at tremendous sacrifice.

HIS MAJESTY'S ARCADE SLIGHTLY HIGHER PROFIT INCREASE IN DIVIDEND An ordinary dividend of 6} per cent, against 6 per cent in the previous year, and a net profit of £3115, against £2890, are shown in the accounts of His Majesty's Arcade and Theatre Company, Limited, of Auckland, for the year ended December 31. With £IOO4 brought forward, there is £4119 available. Interim dividends absorbed £1420. A transfer of £l5O is made to reserve, and final dividends of 2 3-5 per cent on preference shares and 3} per cent on ordinary shares, making 6} per cent for the year, are recommended. These will require £1570, leaving £979 to bo carried forward.

The directors report that rents show a slight improvement, compared with the two previous years. It is anticipated that further tenancies will be arranged in the near future, so that all available space will be occupied, it was considered advisable to place income from investments to reserve. Tho retiring director, Mr. C. H. Abbott, is available for re-election. Following is a comparison of the company's results and appropriations for the past three years:— 1933 1934 ~ 1935 Brought forward . . £BO9 £954 £IOO4 Xet profit • • . . 2985 2890 3115 £3794 £3544 £4119 Dividends—: Pref., 6} p.c. less 20 p.c 1040 1040 1040 Ord., p.c. •. . . . 6 6 (5i Amount . ■ . • ISOO 1800 1950 To reserve .. Carried forward . . £954 £IOO4 £979 Assets total £53,543, a decrease of £698. WELLINGTON GAS CO. IMPROVEMENT IN RESULTS USUAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT [BY TELEGRAPH —I'BESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON", Wednesday The directors of the Wellington Gas Company, Limited, report that after payment of an interim dividend of i per cent on ordinary shares, the dividend for 1935 on preference shares and providing for depreciation of plant, buildings and machinery, also debenture redemption fund and insurance fund, the balance to the credit of the profit and loss appropriation account is £26,051, compared with £25.921 for '1934. Payment of a further dividend of 4 per cent (making the usual 8 per cent for the year), requiring £11,152, is recommended, leaving £14,899 to be carried forward. For the year ended December 31 1073 services were connected and 251S cookers installed, compared with 1027 services and 1843 cookers installed in 1934. BRITISH EXCHEQUER LATEST WEEKLY RETURNS (Received January 15, G.f> p.m.) British Wireless RUGBY, Jan. 14 The latest weekly Exchequer returns show that the total ordinary revenue, excluding self-balancing items, amounts to £479.607,050, compared with £159,076,406 at the corresponding date last -year and receipts from income-tax are £97,713,000, compared with £94,482,000 for the same period of the last financial year. The returns cover the second week in the last quarter of the financial year in which tho collection of income-tax is tho heaviest and the receipts for the week were £13,390,000, against £12,537,000 in the corresponding week of 1935. Receipts from surtax were also higher than in the same week of the last financial year, though to date they amount to £16,190,000, compared with £19.245,000 in 1935. Estate duties have yielded £66,950,000 to date, against £67,815,000 last year and the Budget estimates for the whole year of £80,000,000. The revenue from Customs and excise is £239,575,000, -compared with £229,590,000 at this time last year. The total ordinary expenditure is £578,022,064, compared with £553,158,191 at the corresponding date in 1935. WHOLESALE EGG PRICES Wholesale prices for oggs in Auckland are unchanged, as follows:—Hen, first grade, Is OJd a dozen; B grade. 115 d; C grade, BJd;, duck,, 11 Jd,, IOJd and BJd,