FINANCIAL NOTES.
The financial developments of the week have been of a rather " mixed " character, and while at one time the outstanding feature was the slump in the Foreign Exchanges and the fall in investment stocks, there has been an improvement later in those directions. Among the favourable incidents of the week must be included the definite announcement of all details concerning the readjustment of the Mexican Debt, while despite Stock Exchange depression there have not been wanting indications of a continuance of the appetite of the investor for new issues of capital giving an attractive yield. It is true that there has been a sharp fall in the premiums on many of the scrips of recent capital flotations, and this, of course, has served to demonstrate the extent to which applications for new loans have been supplemented by the activities of the "stag." The genuine investor, however, is still in evidence.
As in New Zealand so in Queensland economic condi- tions have been helped during the past year by successful sales of wool, and at the meeting held of the Australian Estates and Mortgage Company the Chairman, Mr. Williamson, gave a really exhaustive statement concerning the position of that industry. He showed that not only were the results for the past year favourable, but that demands for Australian wool were increasing from almost every part of the world. In passing, he paid a high tribute to the skilful manner in which the British Aus- tralian Wool Reefii.tion Association had organized the (Continued on page 60.) disposal of the very large surplus stocks of wool held by the Imperial Government under its War contracts.
In City circles, however, particular interest was taken ia Mr. Williamson's dignified reference to the State of Queensland. For quite a long time now Queensland credit has been affected in this country by the manner in which it is considered the State has refused to recognize certain contracts made by it with its Pastoral Lessees, and Mr. Williamson stated on Tuesday that his own company had already sustained a loss of £30,000 in connexion with the matter. However, he was content to simply make a dignified protest, adding :— We all want to see Queensland prosperous and trusted, with money flowing freely in for the steady and effectual development of its vast natural resources. The Queensland Government, which, by the elections held in May last, is re-established in office for a fresh period, must have the same wish, and I would suggest that it is in their power, as indeed it is to their interest, by an attitude of conciliation and by a fair and equitable measure of adjustment, to dispel the cloud at present resting on the State, and to gain back for it the high credit it formerly enjoyed.
There are few of our Overseas Dominions which enjoy greater popularity amongst investors than New Zealand, and at the annual meeting held this week of the National Bank of New Zealand the Chairman, the Hon. William Pember Reeves, had a good account to give both of his Bank and of the country in which its operations are carried on. After the difficulties experi- enced in 1921 in the shape of financial stringency and heavy trading losses in the country, Mr. Pember Reeves said that the year 1922 had opened with a better feeling and that all reasonable hopes had been fulfilled. In New Zealand, as in this country, we find the farmer exercising his perennial rights to grumble, but Mr. Pember Reeves, I think, had no great difficulty in fur- nishing evidence that his Bank was thoroughly meeting the needs of the agricultural community.
A. W. K.
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