FINANCE AND TRADE

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4306, 15 March 1901, Page 6

FINANCE AND TRADE

The Customs returns for yesterday amounted to £799 16s lid. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, is in receipt of the following cabled message from its London office, under date 13th instant: —Wheat—The market is inactive. New Zealand wheat of average quality is worth 2Ss 6d per 4961 b; longberried, 2Ds 3d. Tallow—Market is depressed. Fine mutton tallow is worth 28s 6d per cwt; good beef, 25s Cd. The following are recent decisions of the Commissioner of Trade and Customs with regard to import duties:—Bush hooks, as agricultural implements, free ; cabinets for printers’ material, free; commercial copybooks, for scholars’ use, as copybooks, free; enamelling oven, as manufactures of metal n.0.e., 20 per cent.; hay knives, incubators for poul-try-raising, as agricultural implements, free; iron pipes, flanged, as iron pipes, 5 per cent; jewellers’ brushes, as metal workers’ machine tools, free; labels printed on textiles for costumiers, milliners, hat manufacturers, etc., as a. and m.s., free; manicure sets, as fancy goods, 20 per cent.; metal outer cases for labeldampers manufactured in colony, as a. and m.s., free; solar prints, as photographs, 20 per cent.; slashers, as agricultural implements, free ; sketching tablets, as artists’ canvas, free ; wine-press, as machinery for agricultural purposes, free; Wintou panels, as artists’ canvas, free. A NEW COMPANIES ACT’. On the Ist of January the new Companies, Act cam© into force in the United Kingdom. The principal provisions of the Act have a most important bearing upon all new undertakings floated on the London market. No company can be registered, or commence. business, until a statutory declaration has been, made that the provisions of the Act have been complied with. Every director must file with the llegistrar his acceptance of the position, and undertake to [jay for his shares in cash. Every prospectus must state the minimum subscription on, which it will proceed to allotment, and no allotment can bo made until that minimum is obtained.: But subscriptions must bo returned within forty-eight days if the minimum is not reached. All these previsions must be complied with, and in addition every director must have paid the instalments on his shares before the Registrar can issue a permit to commence business. When shares are underwritten, the rate paid must be stated. Any director who is otherwise interested in the company must state.the nature of his interest. The statutory meeting must be held within three months, and a detailed statement of the capital account must be sent to the shareholders seven days previously, and no material contract can be varied prior to that meeting, at which shareholders can discuss any matters connected with the formation of the company. Holders of one-tenthi the share capital can always requisition an extraordinary meeting for stated purposes. Mortgages and charges created upon any company must bo registered within twenty-one days, or they become void, and a register of mortgages must be filed. There are also many provisions as to tli© animal accounts and auditors’ certificates, which latter must bo read at the meeting, and must state whether all their requirements have been fulfilled., and express their opinion as to the accounts.- There are various other provisions, but the points aimed at are that no information shall be suppressed; that no company shall proceed to allotment with /insufficient capital (a most important safeguard) ; that directors shall be bonafide shareholders; that prior charges cannot be created without sanction and publicity; and that the audit shall he more complete. In fact, the auditor lias the right to demand information, and his report must be actually read to the

shareholders. The days when a. £200,000 company could proceed to allotment on a. subscription of £2OOO are over in London. The penalties for non-observ-ance of tho Act are heavy. COMMERCIAL CABLES. PIIES3 ASSOCIATION. LONDON, March 13. Tho total quantity of wheat and flour afloat for the United Kingdom is 3,780,000 quatt£rs, and for tho Cqntinent, 1,060,000 quarters. Shares—Bank of ■ Australasia, 775; Union Bank, 37s 6d. Others unchanged. At the, tallow sales 1100 casks were offered and 253 sold. Prices —Mutton, flue, 28s 9d; medium, 265. Beef, fine, 275; medium, 2oa 3d.