Financial Notes

FIRM MARKETS. FINANCIAL interests of the City in Spain are of a very limited character, and the revolution in that country, though adding yet another to the many disturbing factors i,n the European situation, has had practically no effect upon the Stock Markets during the past week. Attention indeed continues to be chiefly centred upon domestic influences such as the continued cheapness of money and the activity in most of the home industries. British Funds and other gilt-edged securities have improved on cheap money, and there has been renewed activity in home industrial shares with a general upward movement in market quotations especially those in the Iron and Steel group. Even Foreign Government stocks have shared to some extent in the general firmness of markets while there has been a con- tinuance of fairly active business in Transatlantic shares.

* * * * KRUSCHEN PROFITS.

The Report of Griffiths Hughes Proprietaries, Ltd., which owns the issued capital of the operating company manufactur- ing Kruschen Salts, shows that trading profits for the year amounted to £444,800 compared with £452,205 for the previous year. The profits of the operating company were 1456,878 against 2.462,144. The sum of £90,000 is transferred to the Reserve, while the tax-free dividends of 147 per cent. in all absorb £253,355. The holding Company, as a result, has a balance of profit of £240,627, from which a dividend of 15 per cent. and a 2i per cent. bonus are again paid for the year. The balance-sheet is a strong and liquid one.

* * * *

ANGLO-DUTCH PLANTATIONS.

Coniiderable interest was taken by the Rubber market in the speech delivered last week to shareholders at-.the Anglo- Dutch Plantations of. Java, inasmuch as Colonel Sir Robert Williams, Bt., gave a very comprehensive review of the general conditions of rubber, tea and other products in which the Company is concerned. The aggregate profit for the year showed a. decline of about £40,000, but the prospects were regarded as good, and the Directors therefore main- tained the dividend at the previous level. The Chairman at the meeting said that the Directors considered that the tide had turned and that the weight of the slump appeared to bee slowly but definitely lifting. With regard to tea selling prices - were more favourable, and though the rubber situation had proved to be disappointing in many respects, the pro- spects for the current year were more encouraging.: The total output was expected to be much the same, but there was a likelihood that the selling price would be better.- * * * * SHIPPING PROFITS RISING.

The latest Accounts of Furness, Withy and Co., covering the year to April 30th last, shOw a further appreciable recovery in the Company's earnings, for the income accruing at the end of the year was £415,311 against £395,083. This improvement, is greater than the - comparison- would suggest, for it must be remembered that last year the revenue was helped by a transfer from the Reserve. At the same time, the larger profit has not yet made possible the resump- tion of Ordinary dividends. The Preference dividend takes 257,658 and the Board' are setting aside £350,000 for Depre- ciation against £300,000 last year, leavink £210,787 to be carried forward against £203,183. The balance-sheet shows that investments in subsidiaries stand at £5,696,000 against £5,416,000, thus indicating increased- interests. It will be remembered that last December the Directors an- nounced that, in company with associated companies, they had acquired practically the whole of the remaining issued Ordinary share capital of Shaw Savill and Albion from the White Star interests.

* 5 • * 5 THOMAS DE LA-RUE.

While during the past year there was a considerable increase in the turnover in the business of Thomas de la Rue and Co., with an increased net profit of £3,140, the Chairman, Mr. S. S. ,Lannert, :at. the Annual Meeting, said that the year had been a difficult one for the Company in many ways. He reported (Continued on page 182.)

• .

Financial Notes

(Continued from page 180.) a great expansion in connexion with security printing, and a substantial part of the, increase arose out of the fact that China had gone- off silver and had withdrawn her silver coinage and had a consequent greater call for notes. The Company had a substantial share in that work, but it had necessitated- putting in special machinery, the cost of a large part of which had been written nit because it could nbt reasonably have been anticipated that the Cbmpany would get such orders repeated over a 'series of years.

* * - * A Nw UNIT TRUST.

I refer elsewhere to the tendency for new Fixed Trusts to be of the more flexible type and I notice that the latest new unit type Trust, formed under the auspices- of the National Fixed Investment Trust, is to have power to invest, subject to limitations of amount, in the securities of 300 first- class British companies or in trustee securities. It will, in fact, be in the nature of a " management trust," but with definite limits of investment, while there will be the usual safeguards as regards trustees, which in this case are the Midland Bank Executor and Trustee Company. The initial Trust Fund is to be invested in forty of the permitted securities, and the selection' is set out in the Trust's booklet, as well as in the complete list of permitted securities. The initial price of the sub-units is 17s. at which price it is estimated there should be a yield of 4} per cent. The Trust will continua for fifteen years.

* *

UNITED DOMINIONS TRUST.

At the recent annual meeting of United Dominions Trust Limited, the Chairman and Managing Director (and incident- ally the founder of the Company), Mr. J. Gibson Jarvie, was able to make a very satisfactory statement with regard to the continued progress of the undertaking. For the past year the dividend on the Ordinary Shares is 17k per cent., as against 15 per cent. for the previous year. Not only so, but the balance-sheet is a very strong one.. The Reserve has-been raised by £594,950, representing the sum received as premium on a recent issue of additional Ordinary Shares, while a further allocation to the Reserve has been made out of the year's profits, so that the General Reserve now stands at £1,075,000, exceeding the issued capital bra substantial margin. In the course of his speech Mr. J. Gibson Jarvie was,also • able- to show how considerable has been the progress in the Company's activities.

* * * *

A STOCK EXCHANGE Loss.

I would like to add my own tribute to the many which have been paid in the financial columns of our leading journals to the late Mr. Ernest Wilfrid Barron, one of the leading jobbers in the Consol market, whose death, which occurred last Monday after a long and painful illness, caused deep regret in. Stock Exchange circles.. He was, indeed, the foremost leader amongst Stock Exchange jobb&s, and, as was truly said by a writer in The Times, " his courage as a dealer, his quickness in reaching a decision and the general soundness of his judgement earned for him the admiration, in an exceptional degree, of his fellow members." . Mr. Barron was a member of the Stock Exchange C,olunittee for General Purposes and at the last election headed the list of successful candidates with the largest number of votes. He was the Chairman this year of the Stock Exchange Benevolent Fund Dinner and was a benefactor of many