COMPANY EARNINGS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23993, 17 June 1941, Page 3

COMPANY EARNINGS

WAR ECONOMY CHANGE TRANSITION IN AUSTRALIA Evidence provided by the balancesheets of public companies which have presented their accounts since the beginning of 1940 indicates that the transition to wartime economy has been accomplished without any serious disturbance, states the Sydney Stock Exchange Official Gazette. Net earnings of certain groups, it adds, particularly banks, trustee, gas and shipping companies, have not been maintained at the level of the previous years, and all companies have been compelled to set aside increasingly large amounts for taxation out of trading profits, but on the whole, in spite of the many restrictions which it has been found necessary to impose, they have held their ground well. Dealing with the accounts of 70 Australian companies which have been issued since the beginning of the calendar year, the Gazette states that the aggregate net profits showed a recession only from £4,884,000 to £4,109,000. Dividends paid by these companies decreased as from the previous year by £674,183 to £3,374,491, representing 82.1 per cent of disclosed profits and equal to 6.09 per cent on paid capital, as against 92.3 per cent of profits and 7.35 per cent on capital in the previous year. VAST INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION IMPETUS TO COTTON TRADE The view that Australian industry, during the remainder of the war period, will Be busier than ever before, was j expressed by Mr. George Lormer, chairman of National Reliance Investment Company, Limited, at the annual meeting in Melbourne. It does not mean," said Mr. Lormer, "that all businesses will be as j profitable as they_ have been in the past. Higher taxation, rising costs, dislocation of some businesses and shortage of manpower will probably more than offset the benefits of increased volume of production. "Since September, 1939, more than 70 new industries have been started in Australia, and many already existing have received an important impetus. Some industries have advanced as rapidly in the last two years of war as they would have during a decade or more of peace. "At present there are about 47,000 persons directly engaged in Government factories on armament work and in addition 150,000 are indirectly engaged in the manufacture of munitions j and war supplies. "One of the most important peacetime industries to receive an impetus to 'expansion is the cotton textile industry, which was only an infant before "the outbreak of hostilities. This may possibly be destined to become one of "Australia's major industries._ Paper making is another industry which has received a big fillip as a result of the difficulty of importing from non-ster-ling countries." LOLOMA DEVELOPMENT HIGH-GRADE ORE DISCLOSED Latest mine reports from Fiji state that high-grade ore ha s been disclosed in the south drive at No. 3 level of the Loloma mine. It is considered that the high values have been caused by the Regent-Loloma intersection, which enters the Emperor len» at about No. 5 level. The face of the Loloma south drive is now only 130 ft. from the Emperor boundary on the strike of the lode, and it is expected that this rich ore will carry into the Emperor lease. HERD-TESTING SUBSIDY ANNOUNCEMENT OF RENEWAL (0.C.) WELLINGTON. Monday The Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. J. G. Barclay, who will officially open the annual conference ot the National Dairy Association in Aiucidand on June 26, states that the Cabinet has renewed the annual subsidy of Is a cow for herd testing-under control of herd-testing associations. The total subsidy is limited to £15,000. EQUIPMENT FOR CHEESE The problem of financing the substantial amounts for extra equipment involved in the change from butter to cheese manufacture, which is being discussed in the dairy industry at the present time, is also receiving considerable attention in Australia. To protect Uairv farmers and factories, Mr. G. C. Howev, president of the Victorian Dairymen a Association, recently smKcsted that a fund should be created, either with Commonwealth assistance or by the industry itself, for purchase of this equipment, and leasing it to producers and factories. After the war the plant and equipment in question, if desired, could bo taken over by interested parties at valuation