The foregoing paragraph reminds one that Henry Jones Ca-operative, Ld., recently held' an annual meeting, and the shareholders were congratulated upon the fact that, whereas all over the world jam manufacturers have passed through an anxious time, this company, out of its Australian profits, has been able to declare a 10 per cent. dividend every: year since 1917 up to the end of last month. Now, the Henry Jones concern is a jam-making one, and its chief is Sir Henry Jones who advised the fruit-grow-to root out some of their trees and turn sheep into the orchards. It is quite clear that his company, which has now a capital getting on for a million sterling, has been doing very well, despite the wail that the high price of sugar compels it to keep down the price it would like te pay the grower for his fruit.
There has, of course, been a slump in the jam trade, but this is noted al] over the world, one leading manufacturing firm in England the other day stating that losses had gone up to seven figures. Today, all costs are roughly 44 per cent. higher than they were before the war, but that ig the same all over the world—or so much of it as is still solvent. In 1913, the exports of jams and jellies amounted to £29,000, and during the war they rose to very nearly $2,000,000. In 1920-21 they fell to £500,000, and for the year ending®last June to £165,000. Evidence is accumulate ing to show that it is the manufacturers who have neglected their business, and have failed to realize that the boom war years gave them an opportunity, but that to make that opportunity fruitful something more was required than merely to sit down and wait for special concessions at the expense of other industries. It is interesting to note that the exports last year of dried and fresh fruits show a startling and steady increase over the maximum of the war years. In 1913, the value of the dried and fresh fruits exported amounted to £430,000; at the end of last Juno the yearly export had reached within a few pounds of £2,000,000.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.