BALANCE OF TRADE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1693, 8 March 1913, Page 5

BALANCE OF TRADE.

NEW ZEALAND'S FINANCIAL POSITION. STATEMENT BY MR. JOHN DUTHIE FACTS TO BE CONSIDERED. Mr. John Duthio mode a statement lo the Trade of Empiro Commission juiUrday conecrning Sir, Mabin's remarks on tho balance of trade. He had come, ho said, to supplement to tome extent the statements nuulo to thft Commission by the president of tho Chamber of Commerce (Mr. A. K. Mdbin). Ho thought those statements were apt to prejudice the position of this colony il' they v.ero left unexplained in suck an important document as tho report of this Commission would be. lie wished to sketch as faithtully as ho could tho true representation ot tho strength of the fin-Mml position of tin; colony, and tho louring of the balance ot imports and exports npnn it,

In 1011 tho imports were jC19,5i."),5i7!i, and the exports A' 19,028,491), and : il l!H:i the imports were i 20,975,070, and the exports «i;i!1,770,1M3. From .these fabts Mr. Alabiu had made, ccrtuin deductions, but in doing so ho had omitted lo account for several important factors. In England, which whs a lending country, jw alarm was Occasioned l>y the cxct'ssul 1 imports over exports. So New Zealand likewise Was not dependent for its prosperity «n tho balance of these two, items. Un the contrary, large imports might bo to the great public advantage. An enormous development had occurred in this country in, a comparatively few years. Seventy years ago it was a savage country; now it was settled, i'oaded, Served by'good railways, and a high: class of shipping accommodation. It jad a million people, enjoying alt !he <inircinents of a civilised community. The estimate of ft recent Government \tas that wealth to the extent of j;45lt,0110,OHO had been created within the country l'y private individuals, die noticed that the present Government had not lakj'ii the-responsibility of corroborate ilg I lie figures, but undoubtedly''a great ileal it' wealth had been created; in order to make that weiilth we had to. import', and it did lint at ul! jeopardise our posilioii il' there \\'as some overlapping ot imports over exports ■ In considering our debt, also, it Was neccssary to recojnlsi! tlUil the Govcl'tlnitfnt owned railways, telegraph's, niid other public utilities .yielding returns. Under this head the Government owned property, costing U;37,So'J,IWO, which itt other lands would not be part of the national debt.

A great quantity of the imjiorts. into New Zealand were suth us \V6uld odd to the permanent wealth of the hardware sialic the imports into; Xew Zealand during 1011 , were as follow:— Roofing iron, .£308,782; gidvnnised plain iron, ,£3O,'Jll; fencing wire, .£191,210; fencing staples, .£10,357; pipes and fitting!;, .£205,130; iron, and Steel bars, JC228.781: rails, JC1G8.221; machinery—agricultural ii' 170,792, mining .£31,701. woollen mill. •£14,51(1, refrigerating .£5103, electric ;£2sty. 381; a total of .£1,735,1)78. _ This «l- len-t, reduced the balance by which Slr. Jlabin had said the eonhtry Was (,'o'ing to tho had. Expenditure which was crating per-, mancnt. wealth would not bring about iinanciul embarrassment. ! • Tho debt on March 31 Inst was .£Bl,353,1)13, and the nmount which had til be' found for interest and striking fund thereon was ,£3,239,905. But of this liittbr amount .£772,187 was received from investments, and the total l interest payable was really only .£2,167,708. As'against this thoro was a Customs revenue of jC3,1C5,057. There were also the following Government investments yielding direct revenue:— Londs for settlement, .£0,318,038; advances to settlers, .£7,707,881; advances to workers, .£1,435,934; local liuthorities, •£1,597,800; loans to local 'bodies, .C3.M7,000; Bnnk of New Zealand shaves, ,£500,001); a total of J321,126,A53.

Tho indebtedness of local bodies, exclusive of that which was obtained from 'tho general Government, was .£15,737,,(513. This was certainly a fairly large >um, but it wits all secured oh rates, and there had befen no hitches up to the nreseht in tho .payment of it. As a' further" indication Of tho solvency of the country, he would point out. that the Savings Bank deposits amounted to .£15,303,321. Or this nmount ■£14,1)03,232 was invested in Government stock, so. that of the .£81,000,000. of debt this considerable amount was held in the country. Also, a large proportion of 'the debt of private people was duo to other private individuals or corporations in the colint'rtf. ■ Sir Edgar Vihoent said the financial hositiort of the country did not fall within cho "order of reference of the eotnmissioii, so that members would not examine Mr. Butliie on the statement ho had made. Mi'. Duthie COUld be qilite sure, however, that the commission would not draw any hasty conclusion from the Malice of trade fieures. ■ Sir. Duthin said he had thought it desirable that some such explanation as he had made should be nut oil record. Sir Edqar Vinecnt: Quito. Wo a'rfc very glad 'to liavte the ilifovmatibli you have supnlied to us, but I can as,sure von that no hasty or conclusion would be drawn frnm Ui" evidence that Mr. Mabin was good enough to give to us. A DtJNKDTN OPTXTONV (By Telejriiph.-l'rcr* AssbciatiOn.)' Dunodiii, March 7. Sir. J. Londoiv (president of (he (,'iialnber of Commerce) on being asked to express his views oil the suitemeuts made by ill'. Mabiii before the Dominions Royal Comrtiission at Wellington .said it was evident Mr. Mabin had said cither too much or had' not said enough, iu reply to one of the commissioners cs to the Dominion going to (lie bad about four millions per annum, Mr. Mabin i>; reported to have said that the figures fit last year proved such lo be the case, aiid that previous years were nearly an bud. Such an assertion was hardly in incordimce with fact, because in li)l)D the nltiß of exports (excluding, specie) exceeded that of imports by .£t,Hlß.tiS!), and in 1010 by .£5,491,250. In 10(13 the balance if'tiedo Was the oilier way to the extent of ■£1,171,937, but the three previous veins, 1907, 190 C, and 1005, showed an nntiunl average surplus of exports- of .£3,1.'i7,37!i. Tor the last two years imports ha-1 exceeded exports, but this, to his mind, did not warrant the deduction that tho Dominion was going (o the' bad to (l:« extent staled, or that it indicated any want of solvency.

As to the question Of over-importation, he said, he believed there was a tendency amongst traders to carry too large stocks, and in this he was fortified by the cr'n-' ion of a gentleman interested'• in one of the largest merchant importing c.oneerne in the Dominion, who volunteered thf statement that in nearly every ci'lv ni>d tottn stocks were carried much in excess of legitimate trade requirements. On being requested to express himself 011 tho broad question, Mr. London said it was too big a matter for him to deal with on the spur Of the moliicnt, seeing that vocojrnisod economists iit their opinion on the subject. .When <.n<» mado a statement that berauw the imports of a country exceeded its exports that consequently snfch a country was gradually being impoverished, tho wholo of tho surrounding conditions must be taken into consideration. If a country spent temporarily more than it produced willi the object: of ultimately enhancing its productivity, then the accretion of its national and private wealth, by reason of Mich expenditure, must bo taken into account, and if this test wcro applied to Kew flenlolid,' the result appeared satisfactory. The following thanes spoke for themselves;— The number of persons liable to t>nv land lax had increased from 1901 to 1910 from Ifi.nOO to .Tl.2oo.and those ii.viio to nay income tax for the tame pcriml fn ir STOn to 1j,200. Tho 'unimproved valno of'land had' increased from 11)02 lo 1310 from 95 to 175 millions, and improvements for the mi mo pciod from .1!) to 102 millions. Hanlc deposits had increased from lff.o to 1910 from 15 to 21 millions.