FINANCIAL NOTES

CENTRAL BANKING.

In view of the importance which attaches nowadays to co-operation between the Central Banks in various countries and in particular as regards the Central Banks of our own Dominions, the City has been pleased to note during the past week the important announcement to the effect that an Advisory Committee in London of the Imperial Bank of India has been established, and that the members of the Committee are Sir Sidney Sitwell, the London Manager of the Imperial Bank of India, who will act as Chairman, the Right Honourable M. C. Norman, D.S.O., Governor of the Bank of England, and Si* Malcolm -Hogg, director - of Messrs. Forbes, Campbell and Company, Limited. This direct association of the Governor of the Bank with the Advisory Committee of the Imperial Bank of India is undoubtedly a most interesting event.

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STOCK EXCHANGE. " RErcatms.'

The- approach of the annual election of the Stock Exchange Committee usually proves the signal for a discussion as to any desirable reforms. At the present moment there is a rather strong feeling in the House in -favour of abolishing the extra day for " carrying over " in mining shares. Such an arrange- ment would certainly seem to be a superfluity in these days, for it is a. survival of a Kaffir boom which now is scarcely within the memory of the younger generation. So colossal was the volume of business in the great Kaffir boom that= it was found 'impossible to get through the detail work in the ordinary four days of the Settlement, and accordingly there was instituted what came to be known as a preliminary carry-over day In mining shares. The days have-long passed, however, since KalErs or anyother mines boomed tithe Stock-Exchange, but the old custom of the extra day survives, and the public which now indulges in mild speculationson the Contango system finds it rather irritating that so much time should be taken up with some four or five days of settlement with so little inter- vening time for prices to be moving. There would certainly seem to be no need for continuing this preliminary carry-over

day in mines. *

SELFRIDGE PROGRESS.

Although the new capital of Selfridge's may not yet have become fully remunerative, the latest annual report indicates

that the capital expansion was thoroughly justified, the net profits for the year, which amounted to 2.353,000,-showing 'an increase of over 220,000: It must not be forgotten, too,-that during last year the business activities of the firm must have been considerably interrupted by the delay in building the new premises owing to the builders? strike. Therefore, the Report

for the past year is not only a good one, but it is rather sugges- .. t lye of better things to come.

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ELECTRIC RESULTS.

Tile reports of the various electric light companies continue to be of a satisfactory character, and the annual Report of the St. James's and Pall Mall Electric shows that in spite of a reduction in the average price per unit, the company's revenue increased, and that there was a small rise in the profits. It is felt that in not a few other directions a little courage on the part of our industrialists in reducing prices might yield results not only satisfactory to the consumer, but to the shareholders of the industrial concerns themselves.

* * * TILE CHARTERED BOARD.

The British South Africa Company, which for so many years absorbed millions of money without giving any return to the shareholders, is now becoming quite an old-established dividend payer, a second dividend having recently been announced. The annual Report, too, was of a satisfactory character, while particular interest has been taken in the new appointments to the directorate. In place of Brigadier-General the Honour- able Everard Baring, who recently resigned from the Board when taking up the position of Chairman of the Southern Railway, the Honourable Arthur G. C. Villiers, a director of Messrs. Baring Brothers and Company, has been appointed. The two other new directors are Sir F. D. P. Chaplin, a former general manager of the Consolidated Goldfields of South AfriCa in Johannesburg, and Sir William Edgar Nicholls, who is chairman and governing director of Spiller's Milling and Associ- ated Industries, and is a director of Barclays Bank.

* * * . PROiirs. .

It must be regarded as a favourable indication of these " depressed " times that a good many of our big stores and industrial concerns seem to be achieving satisfactory results. The Report recently published shows a balance of profit and loss of no less than £283,000 as compared with £150,000 a year ago, at which time, however, £100,000 was appropriated for exchange depreciation. In addition to maintaining a 10 per cent. dividend, a bonus of 9d. per Ordinary share is to be paid. Moreover, whereas a year ago nothing was placed to the Reserve; a sum of £17,655 is now added to that fund, while the carry-forward has beefi raised from £23,720 to £41,457. A. W. K.