QUEENSLAND IN WAR TIME

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2406, 11 March 1915, Page 6

QUEENSLAND IN WAR TIME

TRADE NORMAL. "Trade in Queensland has certainly not suffered to great extent bv the war." That is the opinion of a Queensland visitor to Wellington, Mr. J. D. Bell,! president of the Brisbane Merchants' Association. In fact, in many businesses, he says, trade has been better than before the war. The. firm ho himself represents is interested in building supplies, and trades throughout the State, and although it .was true that the firm's turnover fell off in tho early stages of hostilities, the decrease was not anything like what it was oxpected to be. Now there was a decided revival in the building trade from one end of Queensland tp the other, and in Brisbane this revival was particularly noticeable. A good many business houses that had the idea of building in mind and had suspended operations on the outbreak of war had now. decided to go ahead with their new premises. They found that trade was at least normal, and they therefore required more space just as. they had required it before the war. • ' ' The only handicaps under which' the business firms were labouring were lack of space in the vessels inward bound and lack of refrigerated space in outward bound steamers. This latter handicap would certainly bo felt later on because the Queensland butter industrywas a valuable one, for the people the wliolo year round.. There was quite a good turnover from the butter factories in winter as well as in summer, and it would be a serious thing if the factories had to stop because the output could not be shipped to market. Still, no one was going to complain if the Home Government required the steamers in connection with the prosecution of-the war.