WHERETO TRADE.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 March 1924, Page 4

WHERETO TRADE.

COMMISSIONER’S ADVICE

WELLINGTON, -March 15

Trade problems were touched on by the British Trade Commissioner, Mr N. Elmslie, in his address delivered at a Te Aro Advancement Society dinner yesterday. Tliero was a fair attendance at the function, and Mr A. A. George was in the chair. Mr Elmslie said that in his annual address Mr George bad mentioned the questions of the incidence of taxation out here and the tariff policy of this country. As an outsider Mr Elmslie would not express an opinion on New Zealand’s domestic problems. His main function concerned tho import trade with Great Britain, but taking a wider view he considered that his interests applied generally to trade with Great Britain. His main subject must necessarily be import trade from Great Britain. Everyone wanted to foster this trade for Imperial and sentimental reasons. Sentiment counted a great deal in business, though some thought otherwise. Ho wanted to make it cleai bow trade within tho Empire was not only of interest to the Old Country in its present position, hut very frequently was in the interests of New Zealand. BRITISH UNEMPLOYMENT DECREASING. All were well acquainted with many of the difficulties in England, but lie was pleased to learn from recent communications that the position . had much improved. Unemployment had decreased markedly in the last lew months. The worst months of the year in England always were November anil December, and during those months at the eml of tho last year unemployment, contrary to all expectations, had tiecreased. Coupled with the fact that unemployment had decreased was the fact that imports (luring the last quarter hail increased to almost its prewar volume. The fact that manufacturers were buying heavily meant that they were well booked up with orders, or that they were very confident respecting the future of their trade. There was no doubt that the feeling throughout England was that things were on the mend. TAXATION INCREASED FOUR TIMJES. Taxation in Great Britain to-day was almost exactly four times what it was in pre-war days, anil the same applied to the rates. These increases made manufacturing costs higher, pushed up prices and directly checked business.

Another factor was capital. Great Britain spent an enormous proportion of her accumulated capital on the. war, and unlike other countries raised a lot of this by taxation. Tho effect of this was still evident to-day. -Many firms at Home were short of working capital, were unable to extend, and unable to advertise. Many times he had been asked why British manufacturers did not send their men out bore to advertise their goods. The fact of the matter was that many had not the money to do it with. The Board of Trade recently found on going into figures that Great Britain had lost over 25 per cent in volume of her export trade. This was a very vital fact, and what was causing the trouble at Home at present, it was said that Great Britain was losing trade, had lost its grip on the world’s markets, and was being beaten by its competitors. These things were not true. The trade of the world was lower by .’lO per cent, and while the trade of Britain was down, it was not down to that extent. In proportion ..Great Britain was doing a little more than she was before the war. If that was the case, why was she .suffering unemployment severely? Tile reason was that many of tho other countries had important home markets and she had not. The United States had enormous home markets, and its export trade was simply a small surplus. Great Britain had concentrated on manufacturing for world markets, and one worker in three was working for export. If the volume of export trade was reduced it mattered little to the United .States, but a lot to Britain.

,e BRITAIN NEEDS -MORE TRADE. s ' Britain had to get more trade some A where. If the volume of trade could lie increased and taxation spread over 11 larger businesses, that was going to lower tiie cost of production, etc. To assist in increasing British trade today meant helping to lower the price of British goods. Take the position in New Zealand to-day. New Zealand in its present state of development was hound to he very largely an exporting country. She had spent big sums ou development works, ana had big debts owing overseas. In addition there was a lot of development e work going on and much work still U to lie done. Alaehinery had to be 11 imported, which meant that Targe sums had to he sent out of the country U for supplies, in addition to the pny- ’ meats on loans. On the other ■ hand C New Zealand sent away its products, and raw materials, and the products of the soil made up 98 per cent of the exports. Ninety per cent of the cx- • ports were sold within the Empire, and 0 over 80 per cent was bought by Great Britain, which was our largest and most important market and would ho the biggest market for some years to , l come, though efforts were being made now to widen the markets. He did not think it was appreciated here that * in all our trading the only country with which we had a balance of trade in our favour was Britain. Britain bought more from us than she sold to us. Figures showed that for a given volume of raw material, only threequarters of the volume of manufactured goods could he got hack, by eom- ’’ porison with the position before the war. ' EUROPEAN MARKETS NOT LOST. ' It- was generally considered that Rri- | tain had suffered because she had lost certain markets, particularly tlie European markets, and that they could be compensated for by the dominion markets which were growing. In 1913 Britain’s hold on the European market was 34.4 per cent, and in 1923 it was 32.2 per cent-. So how could it bo argued that she had lost her hold on the European market. The figures respecting the markets with the selfgoverning dominions were li.o per cent in 1913, and 18 per cent in 1923. ' The fact was that each of the great divisions of the world had altered very little. Great Britain was our one big buyer, and she was suffering bccauso she had not enough trade. If we I bought as largely as possible from her we were increasing her trade and re- | (hieing her taxation; we were tending to increase the price of the goods wo sold through increasing the purchasing power of our customer, and we ' were tending to reduce tlie price of the goods we bought. So it was greatly to the advantage of this country to place its trade with Britain at the present- time. He had looked into the question and thought there was a possibility of transferring about three millions of trade. It might not pay a British manufacturer to send a man out here on the chance of getting business, hut particulars could be sent Home of the class of business that was awaiting him if he could do it. He could not- furnish these particulars alone, but could do it if he had the ® assistance of the business men of this country. If they could furnish him with information ho thought he might a ’ bo able to do something with it.