BROKEN HILL YEAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23104, 1 August 1938, Page 7

BROKEN HILL YEAR

ANOTHER RECORD PROFIT HIGHEST IN AUSTRALIA DIVIDEND OF 12* PER CENT SYDNEY, July 30 The Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Limited, in a preliminary statement reports a net profit of £1,300,460 for the year ended May 31, compared with £1,183,171 for the previous year. The profit was struck after providing £709,954 for depreciation and £12,643 for debenture interest. The dividend for the year was at the unchanged rate of 12.J per cent. The Sydney Daily Telegraph says that Broken Hill's profit is the highest ever earned by a public company in Australia.

With allied interests covering a most comprehensive range of industry, the progress of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Limited, has come to be regarded as a valuable pointer to the general prosperity of Australia. The company practically controls the iron and steel industry in the Commonwealth, either directly or through its subsidiaries, and in this field is the largest individual producer in the Empire. The fact that the company has exceeded last year's record earnings by £117,290 is an indication both of the greater demand for its products, largely for armaments, and of the healthy condition of trade generally. The dividend rate is unchanged, now having been maintained for three years at 12| per cent. The provision of £709,954 for depreciation compares with £670,800 in the previous year, and debenture interest at £12,643 compares with £18,406. As a result of the new plant recently installed, output of iron and steel continues to expand rapidly. The following table compares the totals, in tons, for the past three years:—

1930 1937 1938 Pig iron .. 007,449 669,532 674,142 Steel ingots 624,702 783,138 854,401 The figures are for the full production year ended in June, and the total of steel ingots in the period just completed was a record. From an original issue of £320,000 in 1885, the capital of the company lias grown to £7,840,000. All the ordinary capital of Australian Iron and Steel, "Limited, is held by the company, which also was largely responsible for the formation of a £1,000,000 company to manufacture aircraft in Australia. Only recently, the company assisted in forming British Tube Mills (Australia), Limited, to manufacture seamless steel tubing. The company is also interested in mining ventures, pipemaking and the manufacture of motorbody panels.

INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES EXCLUSION OF .WITNESSES ARBITRATION COURT RULING £by telegraph —OWN correspondent] WELLINGTON. Saturday The attitude of the Court of Arbitration toward applications to have witnesses in industrial disputes ordered out of Court was defined by Mr. Justice O'Regan during the hearing of the Dominion bakers and pastrycooks' dispute. When the ca.se for the employers was about to begin, Mr. E. J. Watson, advocate for the workers, asked that all witnesses be ordered out of Court. Mr. D. I. Macdonald, advocate for the employers, said he desired to make submissions on this point. Mr. Justice O'Regan: Are all your witnesses parties to this dispute? Mr. Macdonald: Yes.

After conferring; with the two representatives on the Court, Mr. Justice O'Regan 6aid that so long as the witnesses were parties to the dispute they could not be ordered out of the Court while evidence was being submitted. Mr. Macdonald said he was not familiar with the legal aspect of the question, but it was along those lines that he intended to make his submissions. He thanked His Honor for the ruling.

TRADE WITH CHINA NEW TARIFF SCHEDULES EXPORTS FROM AUSTRALIA The duty oil Australian butter imported into the Japanese-controlled area in China ha» been increased in a new tariff schedule introduced by the "Provisional Government of North China" and the "Reformed Government of Central China." Details of the new tariff were recently received in Canberra from the Acting-Australian Government Trade Commissioner in China. Generally, the new duties are much lower than those they supersede. It is considered that, in the present circumstances, the new rates will make little difference to trade, which is stagnant. The most important alterations from the Australian aspect are the removal of duties on wheat and flour, an increase in the duty on butter, and the reduction of duties on milk foods, apples, meat extracts, biscuits and pearl barley. The duty on imported butter has been increased by 27.75 per cent. The effect of this in Shanghai, after taking into account additional taxes amounting to 14 per cent, is to raise the duty on Australian butter from approximately 52 cents per lb. to approximately 67 cents per lb.

GRAIN AND PRODUCE MARKET IN CANTERBURY POTATO SURPLUS PROBLEM [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] CHRISTCHURCH, Saturday The only interest in the Canterbury grain and produce markets is still in potatoes. Tho announcement by the Minister of Marketing, tho Hon. W. Nash, that the Government had arranged to buy and ship overseas somo of the surplus has been disappointing because of its vagueness. However, it is likely to have ono definite effect, tho stabilising of local prices at £2 10s to £2 15s a ton, levels that have now been ruling for some weeks. HopoiJ that a market would bo found in Australia in tho near future havo been dispelled bv the cablegram announcing tho Federal Government's refusal of tho request of tho New South Wales Chamber of Fruit and Vegetable Industries to allow the importation of New Zealand potatoes if Now Zealand imported New South Wales mandarins. Growers aro meeting the market in tho meantime, but tho amount of business being done is small. A shipment of potatoes is to leave for the North on Monday, but just how large it will bo is not yet known. There has been somo inquiry in the last day or two for cocksfoot and white clover, but except for a few lines of dark Duns and Algerians thero is practically no demand for oats. Onions are still at the high price of £l7 a ton, but the season* for them is nearly-over.