NELSON BROTHERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11248, 11 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

NELSON BROTHERS.

The 24th ordinary general meeting \\\\n hejd recently a,t the Cannon strw.t hotel, London. Sir K. Montague. Nelson (chairman .and managing director), who presided, referred to the principal items m the balance-sheet, and stated that the net profit- for the year amounted to £42,---547, showing a.n increase of £14,812. At the end of 1906 and i.n the early part, of 1907 the; stocks of New Zealand meat were' It i\V', and. -tliere was a .good dwii n>f speculation,., prices rising to a. very unusual h'gue ; buit thus year there, had been no- such* excitement. Prices had not gone up ; indeed.,,, they were fully Id a. pound less titan they were a year ago, representing a, considerable amount on the large stocks of frozen meat held. At their meeting a year ago Jie referred' to the. America.n meat trust, and remarked that, »s« far as. that trust was concerned, it -was purely a matter betwe.cn the United States Government and. their own people, and 1 that it did nut muck, affect the trade of this country; but sine**, then ther^i had been considerable agitation m some of the London newspapers with, .respect to the. meat trust. He. did not ffay that it would be a- good! thing to impose «a duty, but it seemed to him that this -was.- the only way m wJiich they coblcT .control or do anything 1 with a. foreign trade; winch, obtained such a. hold on the., trade of this 'country as the American meat trust 'had. F-ecnml, not only m regard! to importing, 'hut' also m distributing- the meat. >■ At their last meeting h 6 hud stated that 1,000,000 tons of meat were imported! into the United Kingdom m the previous year, and that, ourf. of thalb ■ quantity, xiiTily 25 , per ceait. came from British .- possessions, while 75 per cent, camo from foreign countries. • He thought it mitsib. 'appear to the ordinary obseryer that if anything could be ttone. to assist iii removing- some of that trade 'from 'foreign "countries to the. outlying portions of • tire Empire nothhug but g-fiod cdulfl result for the British Empire as a wholel' (Hear,- hear:) He was, -however, 'haPPy to Sl| y that, without any preference at all, there was a tendency for the imports into this country from British possessioiifs to increase, with a< ecu-res-ponding decrease m the imports from foreign .countries. 'He had the figures, for the last- six years, and he found that m 1902 20 pcx 4 cent, omly cam© from British possessions, while 80 per cent, came from other countries, whereas iii 1907 29 per cent, came from ' British possessions and 71 pea* cent, from other countries/ Those figures related) to dead meat, and : there had also .been a. falling off. in 'the .importation of live cattle. Last year we imported 472,000 cattle, showing a falling off of 89,000 "compared -with ISO 6. Tbis m. itself 1 meant a' good deal of beef, and the. quantity required had heen made aup either from British possiessiioins or front home-grown. animals. He had no doubt that these figures would be lused by opponents of colonial preference as showing, that we were doing what we wanted %> do without an v preference at all, lmfi lie was inclined to; think that, although these figures were satisfactory m themselves, they might be vastly improved! upon, by a little agreement with the colonies and the Mother Country. Heaft'eri wards referred to .the Land and Income Assessment Act .'which was passed last year by the New Zealand Government, and. which would come into operation otn April be-xt. Whait it enacted', he continued, was a graduated land tax, ariid; such a tax, ho assumed, was for tins purpose of breaking, up large estates, and enooiiiMgirig small holdings. In the oomipany's case, at any rate, the Ai-t had had tha effect for which it had been designed. They had sold land to f.h,e amount of about £180,000 or £190,000, ami 1 -the directors had decided to> pay off all the debentures, which amounted to. £147,000 odd, but winch liad to be paid 1 -off 'at. a "pr-smium of 10 pci j cent. He cmricludisd hv moving ,t resolution for the adoption of the report and the payment of a dividend of 3 per cent, for the' year, and of 4 per cent. on. the, onlinary shares, tax fre9, malring 7 per cent, for the year. M.r W. J. Taylor seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously after the chairman had. replied to a few questions.