COMMERCIAL

Southland Times, Issue 19278, 24 June 1924, Page 2

COMMERCIAL

TALLOW. LONDON QUOTATIONS. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Coy., Ltd., have received the following cablegrame from their I/ondon house: Tallow.—We quote present spot values for the following descriptions:—Fine Mutton, 44/3 per cwt.; good beef, 43/9 per cwt.; mixed, 38/6 per cwt. The market is quiet. STOCK EXCHANGE. INVERCARGILL. The Invercargill Stock Exchange nui yesterday morning. Sales reported:— New Zealand Drug Coy., 67/6. Quotations National Bank of New Zealand, b £6 6/-. Bank of New Zealand, b 53/6. - Union Bank, s £l4 16/-. Westport Coal, s 35/9. National Insurance Coy., s 68/-. New Zealand Insurance Coy., b 29/-. Standard Insurance, s 41/6. New Zealand and River Plate, b 20/6. Wright Stephenson and Coy. (ord.), s 29/-. New Zealand Refrigerating Coy. (10/-, pd.), b 8/10. ®

Southland Frozen Meat Coy. (£1 pref.), s 36/-; (10/- paid), s 18/-; (£1 ord.), s 36/-. Huddart Parker, Ltd. (ord.), s 43/-. Union Steamship Coy. (pref.), b 19/9. Bruce Woollen Mills, s 30/G. Mosgiel Woollen Mills, b £6 12/-. McLeod Bros.’ Soap, b £l4 IG/-. Milburn Lime and Cement, b 36/-. New Zealand Drug Coy., s 67/J. New Zealand Express Coy. (pref.), b 16/6. New Zealand Milk Products, b 25/-. New Zealand Paper Mills, b 20/6. Otago Daily Times, b ,65/-. War Bonds, 1930, b £97. Inscribed Stock, 1938, b £97. War Bonds, 1938, b £97. Inscribed Stock, 1939, b £97. War Bonds, 1939, b £97. Post Office Bonds, 1927, b £9B. Past Office Inscribed Stock, 1927, b £9B. Post Office Inscribed Stock, 1929, b £97 15/-. Soldier Settlement Loan Bonds, 5J per cent., b £lOl 5/-. THE SHARE MARKET. YESTERDAY’S TRANSACTIONS. (Per United Press Association.) DUNEDIN, June 23. Sale reported: Huddart Parker (ord.), 42/6. CHRISTCHURCH, June 23. Sales on ’Change:—Bank of New Zealand, ex div., 52/6; Manning’s Brewery, 27/9. AUCKLAND, June 23. Sales on ’Change:—Bank of New South Wales, £4O 12/-; National Insurance, 40/-; Wilson’s Cement, 28/6; Waihi, 30/9. NORTH AUCKLAND DAIRY FACTORIES BUSINESS AT CONFERENCE. AUCKLAND, June 23. The North Auckland Dairying Conference passed a resolution that, in view of extra clerical work entailed by business people obtaining orders on suppliers’ cheques, the Government be asked to exempt co-oper-ative dairy companies from the main Act and allow companies to carry out legitimate business without being made a debt collecting agency for the benefit of outside people. Other remits carried were:— That dairy factory directorates be voting for the election of members of the Dairy Control Board; That the Dairy Control Act should provide for the election of a Dairy Council of 30 members, namely, 20 from the North Island an 10 from-the South Island elected by dairy factory directorates in each provincial or sub-provincial district as wider representation of the industry for consultation with the Control Board upon any matter for which the Board called it into conference ; That the matter of depreciation of factory plant and equipment be brought under the notice of the Commissioner of Taxes with a view of having a uniform and equitable scale allowed in the Income Tax return. Mr A. Morton was re-elected chairman. EXCHANGE AND CURRENCY. PROPOSAL FOR CENTRAL BANK. (Special to the Times.) WELLINGTON, June 23. 1116 Australian Government does not propose to abolish the State note issue as recommended ml the acting-chairman of the Bank of New Zealand at the annual meeting on Friday, but is adopting the British Treasury proposal made to I the Imperial Conference of a central bank of issue for each Dominion affected by the exchange difficulty. A new method of settlement of oversea exchanges was explained by the Federal Treasurer during* his speech in moving the second reading of the Commonwealth Bank Bill. Dr Earle Page’s speech, made on June 13, did not reach the Dominion until the date of the annual meeting of the Bank of New Zealand. Several schemes have been devised for a settlement of the difficulty of maid ng remittances from London to Australia and New Zealand, and vice versa, and of hampering the effect of fluctuating exchanges. The Darling scheme or Empire Currency Bills was not favourably received by the Imperial Economic Conference, the British Treasury pointing out that it would be ineffective becaue the control of currency could not operate satisfactorily unless at the same time they had control of credit. « Sir James Cooper, Deputy-Chairman of the British and Australian Wool Realisation Association put forward an alternative scheme.

That part of it referring to Australia has been adopted by the Commonwealth Government, namely, that the Commonwealth Bank should be allowed to fulfil its proper and original function. The Treasurer in his speech stated that it was proposed that the Bank would become the pivot of Australian banking, a bank of issue deposit, discount, exchange and reserve, instead of, as experience had shown, merely a Government institution in competition with the private banks. In regard to New Zealand, Sir James Cooper proposed “That the Dominion Government, regardless of its holding in the Bank of New Zealand, should insist on the Bank of New Zealand allowing perfect freedom likewise of exchange operations throughout the Dominion.” As for both, he uggested that they should give proper facilities for the purchase and sale of Australian and New Zealand exchange in London.

The British Treasury accepted this scheme as coinciding very closely in principle with its own. The British Treasury’s scheme proposed a central bank in each dominion affected, as most likely to remove the serious impediment now involved in Imperial trade by difficulties in remitting money and fluctuations in sterling exchange. The Imperial Conference decided to adopt a proposal by the Prime Minister of New Zealand that the matter be referred to a committee representative of the dominions to consider difficulties which had arisen in regard to exchange between certain parts of the Empire and between such parts and the United Kingdom. Such a committee has not yet been appointed. PRESERVATIVES IN BUTTER. COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY. The question of prohibiting the use of preservatives in foodstuffs in Great Britain has been the subject of inquiry by a special committee, and legislation is suggested in respect to butter so treated.

It was recently asked in the British Parliamentary how many samples of imported butter were taken in 1923 to ascertain the percentage of added preservatives. The reply was that the number taken on importation and examined by the Government chemist was 865, and of these 299, or 34 per cent., were found to contain preservatives. It was pointed out that samples of butter blended in English factories were taken by local authorities, and were not generally distinguished in their reports from samples taken from other sources. The total number of samples taken by local authorities in 1923 was 10,280, and although the quantity containing added preservatives was not available at the time, only 15 per cent, contained boric acid exceeding 0.5 per cent. There were no regulations in force in the United Kingdom specifically limiting the percentage of boric acid that may be used in butter, but a limit of 0.5 per cent, was suggested by a Departmental Committee in 1901, and has been generally adopted as the standard for the purposes of the sale of food and drug Acts. FREE PO TS OF MEXICO. EXEMPTION FROM TAXATION. The Government of Mexico has established four “free ports,” or zones, in which merchandise may be handled and industries operate with complete exemption from Customs’ inspection and taxation, municipal, Federal or State. Two of them, Puerto Mexico and Salina Cruz, are situated at the ocean terminals of the national railway crossing, the Tehuantepec Isthmus, the third, Rincon Antonio, js on the railway midway between the oceans, and the fourth, Guaymas, is on the Gulf of California. The zones are enclosed with double fences, lighted and guarded at night. Each free port has railway facilities and is supplied with electric power, while the three ocean ports are equipped with modern wharves, electric cranes, and other facilities for handling merchandise. The object of establishing these free ports is to provide opportunity for enterprising capitalists of all nations to establish headquarters for commerce or begin new industries with economic and geographical advantages “for the easy conquest of new and old world markets.” REFRIGERATION CONGRESS. PRESERVATION OF FRUIT. LONDON, June 22. The final session of the International Refrigeration Congress adopted a resolution in favour of standardisation of international units of cold and an international agreement on the specification of refrigeration capacity. Other motions agreed upon urged the governments of producing countries to ?.u troduce legislation standardising methods of inspection of refrigerated produce intended for overseas; that certificates granted by the governments of producing countries be accepted as final in consuming countries; and that inspection of frozen produce on arrival in consuming countries be confined to that necessary to ensure that the produce was in good marketable condition. It was decided to urge the International Institute of Refrigeration to give special attention to fruit preservation and referred the question of utilisation of liquid air in the preservation of foodstuffs to the International Cold Storage Institute. A motion was agreed to urging that pre-cooling of fruit be recommended but not made compulsory? The next Congress meets at Rome in 1927.