J. C. WILLIAMSON, LTD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 83, 17 March 1931, Page 2

J. C. WILLIAMSON, LTD.

YEAR'S LOSS OF £18,503 .!. ('. Williamson, Ltd., discloses ;i loss or £18,503 tor the year ended June 30, compared with a profit of £f>o,Ko;l for the previous year. A dividend o!' £9,375, or 21 per cent., was paid on ordinary shares on December 31, 1929, and (he usual quarterly dividends of :' per cent, a quarter, amount

ing to .£12,000, were, paid on preference shares. Owing to the business for 1929-30 resulting in a loss, the dividends, the directors state, have been declared payable out of the undistributed profits for the year ended June 30, 1928. Owing lo financial restrictions the company has not for the present paid tbe usual interim diviidends on the preference shares since the close of 1929-30. The directors assure the shareholders that, as soon as circumstances permit the payment of these dividends shall be resumed. The report states that the loss is due to the prevailing depression and adverse business and social conditions generally, accentuated by the exceptional and oppressive State and Federal amusement taxes, including double taxation in New South Wales and Victoria. The continuance of special taxation, the directors add. will result in continued restriction of the company's business.

STAGE NOTES Mabelle Morgan, who played in many revue shows in Australia, is now' touring the English provinces with a vaudeville company. # * * Florrie Forde is still going strong in England. She was playing principal boy in pantomime at Christmas. * * * Ending a notable American theatrical career, Ethel Grey Terry, for 20 years one of the stars of the stage and screen, died at her home in Hollywood on January 6. She had been ill for more than a year. * * * John Henry and "Blossom." comedy artists, are booked to tour New Zealand during the next twelve months. i * * * It is reported that Charlie Chaplin travelled incognito to San Francisco recently and entered himself in a competition for the best imitation of himself. He won—third prize! * * * Edgar AVallace is reported to have refused £5.000 for the British talking rights of his latest, thriller. "On the Spot" (now being played in Australia by a Williamson company headed bv Frank Harvey). He expects to get at, least. £20,000 from American producers. * * * Those in quest of an excellent evening's entertainment need go no further than the Tivoli, Melbourne, where Allan Wilkie and Miss HunterWatts are presenting "Hay Fever, the first Noel Coward comedy t.o reach the Australian stage per medium of a professional company, writes an Australian journalist.