PROMINENT IN BUSINESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 638, 15 April 1929, Page 10

PROMINENT IN BUSINESS

Mr. J. S. Hardwicke. stock department manager for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company , Ltd .

For over twenty years Mr. Hardwicke has wielded the hammer for the Loan Company , and to-day is one of the best-known figures in Westfield stock circles. He has helped to build up a wide connection among the farming community for his firm. In his younger days Mr. Hardwicke represented Parnell on the football field and until recently played cricket for the same district. To-day he finds outlet for his surplus energy as a member of the One Tree Hill Road Board.

EIGHTY YEARS OF PROGRESS A.M.P. SOCIETY’S EXPANSION .■> Reference to the substantial progress of the A.M.P. Society during the past SO years was made by the chairman, Sir Alfred W. Meeks, at the annual meeting of the society, held in Sydney on Friday. “At the close of 1928 the society completed 80 years of its history,” stated the chairman. “The infant of 1849, with a small room for an office over a grocer’s shop in George Street, near Hunter Street, Sydney, with the unpaid secretary and a staff of but one office boy, whose time was mostly taken up in amusing himself by means of a catapult, with a target consisting of a gilded coffee pot projecting over the front of the business, indicating the business carried on below by the society’s landlord. With a register at the end of the first year of 42 policies, and funds of less than £IOO, now owns 65 offices in Australia and New Zealand, as well as a handsome building in London; employs a permanent indor staff of 929, an outdoor staff of ’l7O, as well as agency staff numbering over 1,100; has on its registers in the two departments about 940,000 policies, assuring with bonuses over £240,000,000; collects an innual income of nearly £11,000,000, and holds assets of nearly £74,000,000. Since its establishment, it has collected in premiums over £122,000,000, and in interest from its investments nearly £64,00Q.000: has paid over £91,000,000 to its members or their representatives in claims, surrenders, and annuities, and has distributed about £45,500,000 in cash bonuses. The story of these achievements is one of the romances of finance, and needs no embellishment.” Last year' the company established further business records with a cash surplus for the one year of over £3,000,000. SOUTHERN EXCHANGES TO-DAY’S SALES Press Association Wellington. Reported: Wellington Woollen (ord.), £7 ss; Xew Zealand Breweries, £3 3s. AUCTION NOTES AUCTION SALE, ST.* STEPHENS AVENUE. Messrs. Samuel Vaile ancl Sons, Ltd., announce the sale by public auction at their rooms, Queen Street, on Friday next at 2 p.m. of a desirable family residence of eight rooms, No. 55 St. Stephen’s Avenue. It is not often that such an opportunity occurs in this historic locality, and the property in question is situated in what some people consider the best part of the avenue. The house stands on a level section, and commands a. charming and comprehensive view of Waitemata Harbour and northern suburbs. It is an ideal home for a family of moderate means and aesthetic tastes, and should appeal to, business men wishing to live near the city, or retired persons wanting to settle down amid pleasant surroundings in peace and comfort. Inspection cards obtainable from the auctioneers, from whom full particulars are obtainable.