FINANCIAL JOTTINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2913, 12 January 1910, Page 16

FINANCIAL JOTTINGS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 26 ANGLO-JAPANESE TRADE.

An appeal is being made for an adequate representation of the arts and industries of this country at the JapanBritish Exhibition next year. It is pointed out that the arrangements made by the Japanese authorities leave no room for doubt that there will be an unrivalled demonstration of the past history and present position of Japan in arts, manufactures, and commerce. In the course of his remarks at the luncheon given at the Mansion House recently, to meet Prince Arthur of Connaught, the honorary president of the Exhibition, the Lord Mayor, pointed out that the Government and the people of Japan were ready and willing, as they had already demonstrated, to be the customers of England. It now only remained for the British manufacturer to enable them to be so. The foreign trade of Japan with the British Empire amounted to-day to something like £24,000,000, or 29 per cent, of the foreign trade taken altoegther. It was surely worth while to maintain that splendid commerce, and, if possible, to increase it. RIVER PLATE MEAT TRADE. The Liverpool Journal of Commerce says :■ —" We are in a position to state that Messrs H. and W. Nelson, the wellknown shipowners, of Liverpool, are about to project a far-reaching development in the River Plate shipping trade. They have decided to build six new liners of a greater size than those of their existing fleet. Contracts for two of the vessels were placed with Messrs Cammell, Laird, and Co., Birkenhead, three with Messrs Russel and Co., of Port Glasgow, whilst the sixth is not yet given out. The vessels will be equipped with accommodation of the highest type for passengers, while the specially-designed refrigerating holds will have accommodation for 150,000 carcases. Considerable importance is attached in shipbuilding circles to the fact that two of the vessels are to be built by Messrs Cammell, Laird, 1 and Co. They will be the largest vessels ever constructed on the banks of the Mer--1 ccy. and it is pointed out that Messrs Nek on and Co. are the first Liverpool shipowners to. avail themselves of the immense new yards at Tranmere Bay for the construction of new tonnage. " The vessels are to be used in maintaining a weekly service between London, Liverpool, and the River Plate." TEN PER CENT. ON IMPORTS. Mr Winston Churchill has issued a lengthy letter in re fly to the question how much revenue a 10 per cent, tax on imported manufactures -would produce : Instead of £14.300,000 from £143.000,000 of articles mainly or wdiolly manufactured, he says that deduction must be made of £2".500,000 for re-exports, of £1,500,000 for drawbacks, of £5,250,000 for half the imports shut out by Protection to British manufactures, of £750,000 for colonial preference, and of £750,000 for the cost of collection, which gives him a final-yield of £3,750,000. If only one-thiixTef foreign imports were excluded the revenue would be £5,500,000. But if the duty is leviable only upon the £60,000,000 of wholly manufactured imports, the yield would be £2.250,000 if half the foreign imports were excluded and £3,250,000 if onethird. "All these results are disappointing so far as revenue is concerned. Even if we take the most favourable, the total yield is only 5£ millions, to obtain which the tax * must be applied to an. enormous class of articles which are the raw material of many of our most valuable of our high-grade industries." Further, he calculates the value of all goods fully manufactured in Britain and retained here at £1,000,000,000, and if they are increased by a tariff by only 5 per" cent, the consumer would have to pay £50,000,000 more. WRIGHT AVIATION TRUST. The brothers Wright, with several millionaires behind them, have formed a combination to exploit flying machines, which, by reason of- its articles of incorporation, and its claim to .what they call " the basic principles of aviation," has apparently justified the sarcastic comment that " the Wrights own not merely the world below, but the air above." The capital is £200,000, and the corporation will control in America and Canada all aviation by means of heavier-than-air machines. One paper calls it the American Sky Trust. The articles of incorporation not only mop up everything in the flying world within sight, but the past and future as well, and apparently ignore the fact that, while tlie Wrights were still engaged in. repairing bicycles at Dayton, Ohio, without dreaming of flying, there were men in Europe who were already flying quite nicely, and that, as regards the basic principles of aviation, which the American brothers claim to have discovered, the birds have been illustrating them to perfection from time immemorial. There is no stock tor sale. The company, which has been formed to take over the patents of the Wrights, and to prosecute all infringements, claims as one of its assets even the principle of the plane and the control of the equilibrium of the machine. If this contention is upheld by the Supreme Court, the company will have the monopoly of the air. Wilbur Wright will be president of the new company, and his brother, Orville, vice-pre-sident. STRAITS SETLEMENTS FINANCE. The financial statistics of the Straits Settlements- embodied , in a report forwarded by the Governor, Sir John Anderson, to the ' Se'cretaiw of State for the Colonies, show a big decrease in the revenue for 1908. The estimated revenue of the coloay was 9,685,332d015, and the actual revenue collected was 8,969,015d015, or 716,317d01s below tha estimate, while, compared with 1907, the revenue shows a net decrease of 1,064.00id015» On the

other hand, the expenditure during 1908 exhibited an increase of 337,931d01s over the amount in 1907, notwithstanding the fact that the actual expenditure last year was 483.089d01s below the estimate. GREAT TUBE COMBINE.

Notice has been given of the intention to seek parliamentary sanction for the amalgamation of the Piccadilly, the Bakerloo, and the Hampstead Tube Companies, the capital of the London Electric Railwiys Company, by which the joint concern will bid owned, ip be £16,800,000. The total issue of the three existing companies is £15,920,000. Of the extra, £900,000 capital, £400,000 is to be spent on new work, and £500,000 is provided for in the general re-arrangement of shanes. Practically the whole of the ordinary stock of the existing three companies, amounting to £11,100,000, is held by the Underground Electric Company. Only in the case of the Bakerloo Company were any ordinary shares issued to the public, and the proportion to the total capital is very small. UNION-CASTLE EXTENSION. The Union-Castle Company proposes to run a direct steamship service to British East Africa. Of late years the terminus of their East African line has been at Beira, but beginning with the despatch of the Dunluoe Castle, from Southampton, on January 1, there will be a sailing every *2B days, which will give direct communicatior as far north as Mombassa in British East Africa. Calls will also be made en route at Chinde, Mozambique, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, and Tnaga. There will be a connection at Natal, both outward and homeward, with the company's mail steamers from and to Southampton. What the Union-Castle Company is now doing is quite apart from any Government aid, and may be described as in the natuie of ordinary commercial development. In its consequences, it will have the immediate effect of breaking down something in the nature of a .monopoly, and giving freedom to the trade of British East Africa which may have important results. ARGENTINE BEEF TRUST.

Messrs M. and W. Nelson have arranged to ship 1200 tons of chilled beef weekly from the La Plata and La Blanca works of the Swift Beef Company to London, obtaining the contract at £4 Is 8d per ton, the voyage from La Plata to London to occupy 22 days. The ships will naturally be all British built, and will have a capacity of about 5400 tons of meat, besides passengers, certain of these vessels costing about £105,000 each. They will thus earn on their meat-cargo something approaching £14,000 per voyage. MATCH FACTORY FOR ENGLAND.

A factory which ultimately will provide employment for o-er a thousand East London workers is about to be established at Barking, on the site of the famous Barking Abbey. The Vulcan Match Company, of Sweden, has just negotiated with the Barking District Council for the acquisition of several acres of land upon which to erect a factory. The first part is to be begun almost immediately, and employment will be provided for 100 hands. In the larger scheme, involving the expenditure of over £40,000, provision will ,be made for 10 times that number of workers. NEW ZEALAND LOAN AND MERCANTILE AGENCY CO.

To-day the report is published of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. for the year ended June 30, 1909. The directors state that the gross orofits have been augmented by the satisfactory closing of sundry old accounts, and after paying interest on the prior lien, second and third debenture stocks, and adding £55,000 to reserve accounts (bringing the same up to £305,000), there remains to credit of profit and loss, including the balance brought forward from last year, the sum of £6730. The directors recommend a dividend at the rate of 5 per cent, per annu.i (less income-tax), and that the balance of £359 be carried forward. New Zealand, which suffei'ed from unseasonable weather during the greater part of the previous year, has had a favourable spring, and all appearances point to a productive year throughout the Dominion. There has been a marked advance in the values of wool, and a satisfactory market for the produce .nay reasonably be looked for during the coming year. The New Zealand Land Association has declared and paid a dividend of 5 per cent, for the year ended March 31. 1909. carrying forward the balance of £11,751.