COMMERCIAL

Southland Times, Issue 19518, 18 May 1922, Page 2

COMMERCIAL

THE BURNSIDE MARKET. (Per United Press Association.) DUNEDIN, May 17. There were large supplies in each department of fat stock at the Burnside sales to-day, and some excellent quality animals were on offer. Generally speaking values were easier in tone, and judging from reports by those engaged in the stock business the prospects for any immediate advance in prices are somewhat remote. Fat Cattle.—A large yarding of fair quality was offered, numbering 274 head. Competition was somewhat slack, and prices declined 12/6 per head compared with last week’s rates, with the exception of those for prime quality, which were on a par with late rates. Prime ox beef was worth up to 25/-, medium quality 22/6 to 24/-, heifer about 19/6, and cow beef 17/- per 1001 b. Prime bullocks realised from £lO to £ll 10/-, medium £7 10/- to £9, lighter kinds from £6 upwards. Prime heifers realised from £6 15/- to £7 15/-, medium £5 10/- to £6 10/-, light and aged from £4 upwards. Lambs—A good yarding of medium quality, numbering about 1200 head. Competition was fairly brisk, and freezing buyers were operating up to certain limits. Prices were easier to the extent of 9d to 1/6 per head. Prime lamb made up to 7fd, but the bulk of it brought round about 17|d per lb. Prime lambs realised up to 29/-, medium 24/- to 25/9, lighter kinds from 15/- to 18/-.

Sheep.—A large yarding, numbering 3570 head of good quality. Competition was not very keen, and prices for heavyweights showed a reduction of 2/- per head as compared with last week’s rates. Prices for medium class and lightweight sheep were about on a par with late rates. There was only one freezing buyer in the market. Prime light wether mutton made round about heavyweights up to 4d, and ewe mutton a penny less. Extra prime heavyweight wethers realised up to 32/-, prime 26/- to 28/-, medium 21/6 to 23/-, light and unfinished sorts from 16/- to 18/-. Extra prime heavyweight ewes realised up to 23/-, prime 18/- to 20/-, medium 15/- to 16/-, light and aged 10/- to 12/-. Store Cattle. —A full yarding was offered, which included several pens of three and four-year-old bullocks in forward condition. This class attracted more attention than usual, and competition in consequence was fairly brisk. The consignment realised prices ranging from £5 10/- to £6 9/- per head. A number of pens containing good fat cows met with slack competition, while young and backward cattle were practically unsaleable.

Pigs.—A full yarding was offered, all classes being represented. The demand was somewhat slack, and prices showed a reduction of fully 10/- per head as compared with last week’s rates. Best baconers realised from ssd to 6id per lb, and best porkers from 6id to 7id per lb. ADDINGTON MARKET. (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, May 17. At the Addington market the yardings in all sections of stock were smaller. Fat lambs sold a shade better, likewise prime fat sheep, but beef was unaltered and store sheep scarcely sold as freely as last week. Store Sheep—There was a fair entry, principally ewes, with several lines of wethers from very far afield. The market was rather weaker for ewes and lambs, with wethers much about the same as last week. Forward lambs 16/6 to 17/7 good 12/3 to 14/-, medium 10/6 to 12/-, small 8/6 to 10/-, cull 6/- to 8/-, good halfbred ewe lambs 23/3, other ewe lambs 14/6 to 19/-, good crossbred 6 and 8-tooth ewes 22/- to 25/2, good 21/6 to 23/-, ordinary 16/6 to 20/-, inferior and low-conditioned 12/9 to 15/8, failing-mouthed 11/6 to 15/3, aged 3/6 to 8/6, fairly forward 6 and 8-tooth wethers 18/-, ordinary 14/6 to 17/-, twotooth 12/- to 15/2. Fat Lambs—4963 were penned, about 500 less than last week. The bulk were unfinished. The sale opened at last week's values, but firmed up near the finish and averaged about £d per lb. Extra prime lambs 25/- to 30/-, prime 21/9 to 24/6, medium 19/9 to 21/6, light and unfinished 16/6 to 19/6. Fat Sheep—A smaller yarding and a hardening tendency for heavy sheep, light ewes being slightly easier. Prime sheep were generally beyond exportere’ limits. Extra prime wethers 27/6 to 34/-, prime 23/- to 27/-, medium 19/9 to 22/9, light and inferior 17/- to 19/6, extra prime ewes 23/- to 25/9, prime 19/- to 22/9, medium 14/9 to 18/9, lighter 12/- to 14/6, old 9/10 to 11/9.

Fat Cattle. —A yarding of 450 was offered, compared with 508 last week. A special Line of twelve averaged over £l7, but for the average beef values were the same as last week. Extra prime steers £l4 to £lB 5/-, prime £lO to £l3 5/-, medium £7 10/- to £9 17/6, inferior £5 5/to £7 5/6, prime heifers £5 5/- to £7 15/-, ordinary £3 to £5, prime cows £4 15/- to £6 15/-, ordinary £3 to £4 12/6. Vealers. —Anything good sold at 10/- per head better than last week. Runners £5, good vealen?. £3 10/- to £4 10/-, medium £1 10/- to £2 5/-, small calves 5/- upwards. Store Cattle.—Three and 4-year steers £4 to £6 5/-, 2-year £1 15/- to £2 15/-, yearling £1 5/- to £1 10/-, good 3-yeaf heifers £5 to £7 1/-, 2-year £2 10/- to £3 5/-, yearling £1 12/6 to £2 5/-, good cows £4 15/-, medium 20/- to 30/-. Dairy Cattle.—The demand was weaker, but good cows sold at about late rates. Good second and third calvers £l3 to £l7, ordinary £7 to £l2 10/-, good springing heifers £l3, ordinary £7 to £lO 10/-, cows in milk for some time £5, aged and inferior cows 10/- to £4 10/-. Fat Pigs.—The demand was only moderate. Choppers £3 to £4 10/-. light bacoiytfs £3 to £3 10/-, heavy £3 15/- to £4 5/-, extra heavy £4 15/-, average price per lb 6d; light porkers 40/- to 45/-, heavy 47/to 54/-, average price per lb 7 }d to Bd. Store Pigs.—Good stores 7/- to 8/- above late rates, medium stores 28/- to 32/-, small 22/- to Til-, weaners 6/6 to 12/-. CHRISTCHURCH STOCK EXCHANGE. CHRISTCHURCH, May 17. Sales reported: New Zealand Refrigerating, £1 paid, £1 8/-; Commercial Bank, £1 14/3. Sales on ’Change: New Zealand inscribed (1938), £94; New Zealand Refrigerating, £1 8/-. P. & 0. COMPANY. ISSUE OF NEW CAPITAL. AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. (Special to the Times.) DUNEDIN, May 17. The following extract from an announcement recently made by the P. & O. Company is of public interest: “The directors propose later on to issue a further £3,500,000 to rank pari-passu with the present issue. The directors estimate that the company’s assets are more than ample to discharge all liabilities, to repay preferred stock at par and deferred stock at the present market price, and leave a substantial amount to the good. In arriving at this conclusion the company’s properties in Leadenhall street and Cockspur street and in Bombay, Singapore, Hongkong, and elsewhere have been treated on a conservative basis. Government and Stock Exchange securities have been taken at something under the market price. The company’s steamers built before the war which are less than twenty years old have been taken at cost price less 5 per cent, per annum depreciation, while those delivered or which are now being built during the period of high prices have been taken at pre-war costs, and in the case of such vessels as have been delivered 5 per cent, per annum depreciation has biw*D allowed for. The same formula has b< ei applied to the associated companies?’

COLOMBO TEA SALES. COLOMBO, May 16. At the tea sale one and three-quarter million pounds were offered. Bidding was active and more general. All good sorts were dearer; common and medium broken Pekoe, 13Jd per lb; fine broken, 15id; good common leaf, 15d to 17d. COST OF LIVING STATISTICS. According to the Monthly Abstract of Statistics, there was a decrease of 38 points for the three principal food groups, between February 15 and March 15. The February figure was 1549 and the March figure 1511, the latter figure being an increase of 41.21 per cent, as compared with that for July, 1914. A fall of 60 points took place in the groceries group, due mainly to an all round fall in the prices of bread and flour. In the dairy products group the index-number fell 38 points, due mainly to decrease in the price of milk in some towns, and of bacon in most towns. A fall of 10 points in the meat group, was accounted for by a fall in the prices of beef and mutton joints in several towns. The latest available figures for the principal countries publishing statistics of retail prices of food are as shown in the following table:— Comparison between July, 1914 Increase

The average worth of the pound in March for the three food groups was 13/10i, compared with twenty shillings in July, 1914, an improvement of 9£d over December, 1921.

THE WOOL SALES. AVERAGE PRICES. Information compiled by the New Zealand Wool Committee concerning the wool sales which have been held since October 1 gives the following results: — Date of Av. price Sale. Centre. Offered. Sold, per lb. d.

It will be noted that where the finer qualities of wool are offered at certain points m the South Island higher average values are recorded, and the converse ap plies to certain points in the North Island where coarser types of wool predominate. A sale was subsequently held at Wellington on April 5, at which 14,403 bales were offered and 13,901 bales ®old at an average price per bale of £8 14/4 and per lb 5.37 d. Further sales allotted to complete the season are as follow; —

May 16 —Auckland, 3000 bales. May 18—Wanganui, 7500 bales. May 22—Napier, 5000 bales. May 25—Wellington, 7000 bales. The sales of New Zealand free wools from July 1, 1921, to March 31, 1922, have been as follow: — Sold by auction in London, 201,214ba1e5; sold by auction in New Zealand, 413,954 bales —total, 615,168 bales. By the end of May the committee estimates not more than 45,000 bales of wool of the 1920-1921 and 1921-1922 clips will remain unsold in New Zealand. Although a great part of this wool has been sold at prices unremunerative to growers, there has been very Little speculative purchasing, and the great bulk has been sold for direct consumption in the mills of the United Kingdom and the Continent. On the whole, the purchases for shipment to the United States of America have been small.

THE SUGAR INDUSTRY POSITION AND PROSPECTS Operations of the Colonial Sugar Re fining Co.. Ltd.., during the half-year which ended on March 31 last, were reviewed in the address of t*hc deputy-chairman, Mr H. E. Kater, M.L.C., at the meeting of shareholders in Sydney recently. Mr Kater explained the. absence of Mr E. W. Knox by the statement that that gentleman was on his way to London on the invitation of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, “in the hope that discussion there of the labour difficulties (in Fiji) may lead to the solution of these and the ultimate recovery of the colony from the faiulre that is imminent if the introduction of Indian labour should cease.” The word “ultimate” was used in this connection, the chairman added, for it was a very serious and costly matter to bring back a sugar-cane plantation to the necessary state of high cultivation when it had suffered from a stoppage of the continuous operations essential to success. And that Was already the case with a large proportion of even the company’s own fields. Referring to crops and crop prospects, the chairman said the yields in New South Wales and Queensland last season had been below estimates, but in excess of the Com mon wealth’s requirements. A surplus would be carried to next season. March weather had been dry, and the cane had received a serious check. If rain should fall soon the set-back might be remedied to some extent, but the early expectations of a very large crop could now be dismissed, and, although it was risky to prophesy, given normal weather until the middle of the year, the next crop would not be much in excess of the last one. The output from the-company’s Fiji mills last season was somewhat larger than anticipated, as they were able to work two factories up to the end of January. Next season’s production was quite problematical, because it depended on labour conditions, about which it was impossible, at present, to form any conclusions; at any rate, the output was bound to be considerably smaller than last season. Fluctuations in the world’s markets since they last met had not been very marked, although prices gradually weakened toward the end of the year; since then a reaction had set in, and a much firmer tone prevailed everywhere. The world’s production was not in excess of the consumption under a normal state of affairs, but “until the purchasing power of the nations increases. it may be difficult to find ready markets for the sugar now being produced.” The company’s agreement with the Fed* eral Government for the refining of the Australian sugar crop would expire in

June, but. as the Government would again control the next crop, they expected shortly to make fresh arrangements for handling it. The agreement with the New Zealand Government also would expire in June, but owing to the uncertain position in Fiji, the company bad not been able so far to submit any fresh proposals. They had, however, suggested for the consideration of the Government a temporary way out of the difficulty by which the Dominion would be provided with sugar up to the middle of October next. PRICE OF GERMAN PIANOS The statement of the Cape Times that German pianos were invoiced in Cape Town at less than £5, is given u different complexion by the Cape Town correspondent of the London Daily Mail, who telegraphed recently that the import of German pianos was steadily increasing. The Education Department had arranged for the purchase and import of hundreds of German pianos at 21,000 marks each. The German import may suffer severely, however, under a measure just introduced by the Customs Department—viz., that Mk. 400 is to be reckoned as the equivalent of the £ sterling, on the plea that the inland value of the mark is greater than its international value. If this is actually to be the basis of reckoning, pianos costing Mk, 21,000 will mean not £26 but £52 each. PRODUCERS’ POOL A POVERTY' BAY SCHEME A representative meeting of Poverty Bay farmers unanimously approved of a scheme for forming a Producers’ Association to market their produce. It was urged that at present farmers, through lack of organisation were sacrificing their products, selling in many instances at prices much below the ruling rates elsewhere in the Dominion, and the proposal is that they should put their products in a pool which will control distribution and arrange with merchants.

ARMOUR AND CO’S BAD YEAR The firm of Armour and Company of Chicago, in its report for 1921, affirins that the year just passed through has been “the most disastrous in our business history, as well as in the packing industry generally.” The loss on the year's trading is reported to have been over 30,000,000 dollars (normally £6,000,000). The company paid no dividend on its common stock, but met that on the preferred stock, and having previously accumulated large reserves, began 1922 with reserves aggregating £12,000,000. A significant statement by Mr J. Ogden Armour, when commenting on these results, is that “never before has the utter helplessness of the packers to fix prices or control markets been so completely demonstrated.”

Country. South Africa and per cent. ..December, 1921 25 Australia . .March, 1922 41 New Zealand ..March, 1922 31 Canada ...January, 1922 49 United States.... ..December, 1921 42 Holland (Amsterdam) .January. 1922 52 India (Bombay) . ..February, 1922 60 United Kingdom.. ...March, 1922 77 Sweden ..January, 1922 90 Denmark ..January, 1922 97 Norway .. December, 1921 168 France (Paris).. .. ..January, 1922 219 Belgium ..December, 1921 338 Italy (Rome).... ..January, 1922 369 Finladn . .November, 1921 1186 Germany ..January, 1922 2119

14/10/21—Wellington 7,167 6,969 4.55 18/10/21—Auckland 5,085 4,558 4.45 20/10/21—W anganui 4,032 3,611 4.21 5/12/21 —Auckland 8,749 6,783 4.35 9/12/21—W ellington 15,491 13,433 4.95 13/12/21—Napier 15,966 14,097 4.47 16/12/21 —Ch’church 20,352 18,227 6.92 21/12/21 —Dunedin 10,904 10,302 6.90 3/1/22 —Timaru 9,903 9,569 6.85 6/1/22 —W anganui 13,347 11,991 4.85 11/1/22—Napier 19,992 18,007 5.16 16/1/22 —Wellington 19,986 18,168 5.65 20/1/22—Ch’church 20,465 19,796 9.01 25/1/22 —Invercargill 14,108 12,499 6.13 30/1/22—Dunedin 18,426 17,648 8.90 3/2/22—Timaru 12,000 11,216 8.02 8/2/22—Auckland 10,052 9,623 5.60 13/2/22—Napier 16,095 15,186 5.20 17/2/22—Wellington 24,828 21,505 5.3 23/2/22—Ch’church 18,012 15,422 7.69 28/2/22—Dunedin 20,108 17,463 7.77 3/3/22 —InvercargilJ 9,865 8,864 6.04 10/3/22—Wellington 18,837 16,714 5.40 14/3/22—Napier 11,704 10,418 4.70 17/3/22—W anganui 19,245 17,037 5.02 21/3/22—Auckland 12,223 9,690 5.10 27/3/22—Ch’ church 9,099 6.96 31/3/22—Dunedin 11,290 10,878 7.70 Various dates—Gisborne 2,753 2,753 Total sold.. .. .. 361,526