"DUMPING" IN NEW ZEALAND

Hokitika Guardian, 16 November 1920, Page 4

"DUMPING" IN NEW ZEALAND

Every returned traveller who is in business tells bow the British ware houses are bursting with goods which they cannot get rid of at anything like the price, paid for them, and that lour months ago the warehouses were ] repared to sell at lower prices than the mills could then supply at. The cause of the big surplusage of goods' is said to be the falling-off in orders. Tradesmen the Empire over, who had always kept liberal stocks in hand curtailed tlieir orders with wonderful unanimity, anticipating an early slump, and the big fall in the. price of wool and cotton settled the buying trade'for a while, so that stocks at high prices accumulated rapidly. The process of “dumping is reported to have already begun (says the “Dominion.”) .One Wellington importer states that he has receiv-, ed goods which were not to. have been delivered until .January., He is only one of many, and the bonded stores ar» becoming congested with goods which importers are not prepared to pay duty on. Another Wellington indentor relates an Auckland case where a trn.’i, i in order to secure the district agency of a certain motor-car, had to guarantee to take 300 cars within a given period. Knowing how difficult it has been to obtain delivery- of cars, he readily agreed. To his utter consternation lhe whole 300 cars arrived in one steamer, and he was faced with the difficulty of meeting a five figure draft. The cars (in eases) are still stacked up on the Auckland wharves, there being no mini the already congested bonded stores to take such bulky goods. ]