COLONIAL SUGAR CO.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 66, 1 November 1911, Page 5

COLONIAL SUGAR CO.

HALI'-YEARLY ME 1-711 NO

(By Electric Telegraph.— Copyright.) (United Press Association.) Sydney, October 31. At the half-yearly' meeting of tho Colonial Sugar Refining Company the report showed the profits in Australia to have been £15,829, and in Fiji and New Zealand £95,000, to which were added the balance of £77,013, making a sum of £283,443 available for the half-yen i!. A dividend of 10 per cent, for tiie .vear was declared, absorbing £150,000,' with a bonus cf 2s a chare," absorbing £15,000, leaving £123,443 to carry forward. it was stated "that the heavy rains and floods in Queensland and Fiji had been followed by exceedingly dry weather, which had* done much to damage the growing crops. Tiie partial failure of the best crop in Europe had caused an advance in prices, but there was no reason to suppose that a permanent advance had been or will )o established. The chairman, in moving the adoption of tho report, referred to the appointment of the Sugar Commission, i'he company in due course would state its views on the situation in order to silence those who attacked it, and sot forth more fully than it had yet done tho position. That it should be compelled to do so was a gravp wrong, but Parliaments now lost sight altogether of the liberties of the community. The action of the commissioners in not allowing the company to be represented by counsel could not 1)0 defended cither by precedent or justice. The Queensland strike had caused a small loss in connection witii the mills, but they were i able to keep- running, so the* production while tiie strike lasted was only a little below normal. In the settlement effected the company had no part but nothing could be gained, by disputing details now. Notwithstanding the rise in prices the company, in June sold manufacturers' supplies for the year at a rate which gives them, sugar, duty paid, below what their competitors in Britain have to pay in bond.