FINANCE AND TRADE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5665, 12 August 1905, Page 10

FINANCE AND TRADE

The report of the Alliance Marine ant» General Assurance Company for 1904, submitted at tho meeting held in London on the 28th ult., states that the balance at credit of tho 1903 underwriting account on 31st December, 1903. was, after deducting expenses, £51,G23 r and tlie settlement on this account during 1904 amounted to £25,364. The balance remaining at credit of profit and loss is £105,035, out of which it has boon decided to declare a dividend of 30s and bonus of 10s per share, together 40s per share, or £20.000. An interim dividend of 10s per share was paid on 2nd January,, and the balance of 30s per share will be paid om Ist July. Tho net premium of the 1904 underwriting account was on 31st December £150,576, the not settlements.' being £36,487.

With regard to the China now crop. Messrs Jardine, Mathcson anjl Co., in their market report dated Foo Chow, 10th June, state:—lf an effort wan really necessary on the part of teamen to manufacture good tea, the overstocked condition of the consuming mark eta. this year certainly called lor it. Deports on the opening of last five seasons aro somewhat monotonous; they read as follow:—1900: ‘The crop generally must be put down as an inferior one.” 4901: “As a crop it is a poor, one.” 1902: Is a brilliant exception. “The quality generally is considered better than last .season.” 1903: “The quality ns a whota may be said to be slightly inferior to last season.” 1904: “Generally speaking was a poor crop”; and 1905“ Can bo summed up as most disappointing.” Tho very plausible “too much rain up country”" has obtained without comment up to the present, but is now a matter of serious consideration whether tho fault is at all events entirely due to tha weather. Careless manufacture, restricted capital, and. worst of all, “old custom,” seem to be in some measure responsible for what may fitly be described as the passing of the tea trade. Unless a change of a radical nature is* shortly made, Foo Chow is doomed.

It is now confirmed that the Canadian Government has come to an arrangement with Messrs Elder,' Dempster and Co. to run a line of steamers between Canada, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico, tho steamers to carry mails, passengers and cargo. The service is to be monthly. The idea is to develop commercial inter, course between the ports mentioned and Canada, and to secure for Canada, a portion of the trade which now is car. ried on via the United States. At present, so it is said, there are a large number of Canadian investments m Mexico, which appears to ho opening up in commercial value, and promises to afford a good field for enterprise. Canadian ports will he Quebec and Mon. trcal in summer, and Halifaxiu winter. The Dominion Government is pushing its trade in numerous directions, and so far it may be said that its policy has been attended by satisfactory re suits.

From tho tenor of latest letter ad. vices from .New York some apprehensions had been expressed on the question of a German purchase of the island of St. Thomas, in the West Indies, from Denmark. Tho strategic importance of tho island in connection with the Panama Isthmus Canal and the Caribbean Sea has long been recognised. For a number of years St. Thomas was the distributing and receiving point for the British royal mail service, connecting with the Windward and Leeward Islands, the ports of the Spanish mam irom Santa Mai-tha to Greytown, Venezuela and Caracas, as well as Cuba and the ports to the Gulf of Mexico. Tha harbour accommodation is good, the only drawback being that, as it is within the hurricane zone, tho island and its shipping suffer from these storms. The United States made an offer of 7,000,000 dollars for the island, but Denmark refused to sell. The movement is now again made to settle terms of purchase, bin this time there is behind the Denmark Crown a power that will doubtless frustrate any attempts to forward the floating of the stars and stripes over the old fre-sbooters’ harbour of refuge

The thirteenth report of the. Nippon Yusen Kaislia (.the Japan .Mail Steamship Go., Ltd.) shows that the gross profits for the half year amounted to 3,870,431 —042 yen, out of which was paid 2,384.772 —235 yen, leaving a balance of 2,459,925 —070 yen, including 974,263 —6C9 yen brought forward from the last amount, a dividend at the rat* of 10- per oeiu., with a special dividend of 2 per cent. r ihri absorbs 1.320,000 yen, and after 71,358 —110 had been mad as director-3 and auditors’ fees, knives 74.283 yen to bo addtd to the icsej've fund, raiding it to 2.133,338 yea iud yen to be carried to the ie-\t account.