TIMBER COMPANIES’ LOSSES

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1931, Page 11

TIMBER COMPANIES’ LOSSES

QUIET CONDITIONS PERSIST. ROTOITI AND TAUPO-TOTARA. A loss of £8769 is disclosed in the annual report of the directors of the Rotoiti Timber Company, Limited, for the year ended June 30. Thio compares with a 'loss of £l7BO in the previous year. The directors remind ehareholders of the depressing conditions that have ruled in the timber industry during the past year. The practical stoppage of the building industry in the territory in which the company had to look for most of its business, combined with the falling away of the export trade to Australia, had hit the company very hard. The whole of the timber industry had suffered severely. Drastic reductions had been made in the staff, and economies effected in salaries and wages of all connected with the company. The loss on the year’s operations is arrived at after providing for the usual depreciation of bush tramways, plant, etc., £3146; and bush cut out, £1996. The stock at the end of the year is larger in quantity than at the previous balance date, but lower in amount on account of reduction in values. The loss has been carried to appropriation account. The directors regret inability to declare a dividend on preference shares for the past year. “The immediate outlook for the timber industry,” the report adds, “is not encouraging, but a revival of the building trade must occur sooner or later, and when it does the company is well equipped to participate in the increased business that will be offering.” The Taupo-Totara Timber Company Limited, shows a loss f £7099 on the year’s operations ended April 30, as against a profit of £9214 last year. In the latest accounts £11,076 is allowed for depreciation of buildings and machinery and for bush cut, and £6524 is written off the capital value of the railway. The amount brought into the accounts was £23,392, and during the year two dividends of 3J per cent, were paid on preferential shares, absorbing £8292, leaving a credit balance of £15,100. After deducting this year’s loss, there was a credit of £BOOl, from which £4140 has since been paid as a half year’s preference dividend. The report states that the unfavourable result is due to depressed markets, with an absolute slump during the past half-year. Owing to the poor demand stocks had increased and their values had been written down. It had been found necessary to replace the bridge over the Waikato River, and a contract had been let at an approximate cost of £lO,OOO. The bridge should be completed before the end of this year. The principal items of the balancesheet are as follows, last year s. flgui es being given in parentheses: 'Paid capital, £293.564 (£293,564); sundry credi£2972 (£5644); reserve for taxes, £BO2 (£1633). Assets include; Properties, £65,474 (£70,499); buildings, £5207 (£5604); mills, railways and plant, £114,555 (£124,014); stocks, £32,356 (£29035); debtors, £20,2'24 (£22,300); investments, £03,199 (£71,081); cash, £2300 (£1778). In the 1930 year 7 per cent, preference dividend was paid, but theie has been no ordinary dividend since 1927.