Bevicw of Ei'vicu-g, ijsllS. 



F/XAXCE AXD BUSINESS. 



75 



in liabilities, has materially improved 

 the margin of assets over the bank's 

 obligations to the public. That margin 

 is a ver)- satisfactory one. for there are 

 now, for every i^ioo of liabilities, over 

 £iiS 8s. in assets, where in December, 

 191 1, there were onh' ;/?! n 12s. 



For some time bank shares have been 

 extremely low on the Sydney Stock Ex- 

 change, chiefly because of the dear 

 money, and also, no doubt, because in- 

 vestors inclined to bank stocks have 

 other more pressing uses for their 

 money. Yet this bank's shares (£12 



I OS., paid with a reserve liability oi £12 

 I OS.), are decidedly attractive at the cur- 

 rent price of £2^ los. For one thing, 

 they are much below the average price 

 of ;^29 for the past ten years. More- 

 over, the assets xalue per share, after 

 allowing for the liabilities, is over £24 

 4s., and anyone bu}-ing at £2^ los. is 

 accordingly only paying £i 6s. for in- 

 ner reserves. The yield, too (£4 iSs.), is 

 a good one. At the same time, the shares 

 are not likely to rise to any great extent 

 until money becomes cheaper, while the 

 uncertainty as to the actual effect the 

 competition of the Commonwealth Bank 

 will have on the bank's business weighs 

 heavih^ with timid investors. 



NORTH COAST STEAM NAVIGATION CO. LTD. 



This steamship company, which is 

 the chief one trading on the New South 

 Wales coast, did very well in the Decem- 

 ber, 1 91 2, half-year, for the net profits 

 amounted to /^ 14,1 85 — about i^8oo uiure 

 than they were in the previous June. 

 The Directors did not admit more than 

 .£"12,824 having been made, but one 

 finds the insurance and suspense account 

 was increased by £1^61, to £^5 5,649, 

 which, of course, came out of the earn- 

 ings. It has been the Directors' policy 

 for years now not to admit any more 

 profit than will just about meet the half- 

 yearly dividend, which accounts for the 

 small balance of £^824 transferred to 

 the dividend equalisation reserve, after 

 paying the 8 per cent, per annum half- 

 yearly dividend of /" 1 2,000. 



The company, in common ^^•ith other 

 coastal steamship concerns, is having 

 trouble over the question of wages. 

 Several claims for altered conditions 

 and increases of pay are now being con- 

 sidered, and though, of course, it is 

 doubtful as to what the outcome will be, 

 it is very probable that the companies 

 will have bigger wages bills to pay in 

 the near future. But this may not 

 affect the North Coast Company materi- 

 ally, for it has a large dividend equali- 

 sation reserve of nearly ;{~ 13,900 out of 

 which to meet any deficiency in the pro- 

 fit in regard to the dividend. 



During the half-\'ear two new boats 

 were placed in commission, while a third 

 should arrive about the middle of 1913. 

 The cost of these new steamers has had 

 no apparent influence on the steamer 

 asset, which, on the contrary, has fallen, 

 by over ;£io,300, to ;£3 15,000. It may 

 be that the June, 191 2, period met most 

 of the outlay of these boats, and that 

 the depreciation written off in the past 

 half-year has swamped the further pa\-- 

 ments on this account. The steamers 

 are, the report states, all in good order, 

 and full}- insured. It omits, however, 

 to state the amount of insurance, which 

 in the June statement was set down at 



i:309,50O. 



* * * 



There was, in addition to the above 

 decrease, a fall of ;{^i6oo in sundry 

 debtors, to ^41,800, but the bulk of this 

 total reduction was made up by increases 

 in the remaining assets, so that the de- 

 cline for the half-}'ear was only ;£"i700, 

 to i^4i 5,400. The rise of ;£3400 in the 

 money invested, to i^i 5,200, combined 

 with the decrease of about ;/r90oo in the 

 liability of money held on deposit, to 

 ;£, 10,500, was chiefl}' responsible for this. 

 For, whereas in June there was a net lia- 

 bility of £77800, tlicre is now an asset 

 of £'4500. The remaining- assets are 

 insurance suspense account, ^Ti 1,100 

 (£7300 in June), freehold property and 

 workshop, £"26,000 (£^25,000) ; and 

 stores and coal on hand, £ri6,8oo 



