FINANCIAL OUTLOOK.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 June 1925, Page 1

FINANCIAL OUTLOOK.

WELLINGTON, June it), Pi* liis address to the meeting

shareholders of the Bank el' New Xeu land on Friday the Chairman refer riii£ to the outlook stated: For the year ended March last on imports

nnounted to ±31!),821 .01)5 V ; !. • : .11* OXpOl'is tOt :l Ill'll {.'ol.ill. 158, the iliflVrenco in our favour La in" £.|,!)50,1)(i3. It must lie phviou tluii this surplus is quite mad |iuu

to meet (lie amount which is annually required to pay interest e:i loanraised by the Government and Lo at Authorities outside the Dominion. It is true that towards the end c.

the iinancial voar there was a <

siderablo slump in the price of eartain of our primary products. and

that a fair proportion ot our exports was hold over in the hope ol a licit ■' market developing in the neat' intnre; but, oven if prices had been maintained. and all til's .roods in store been shipped, though the relative po-ilioii would still have been insulin iont t.> justify an optimistic view of tiie pos-

ition at the present moment. Any advice as to the need for general economy is unpalatable. It has been (liven so often that 1 am alraid tf falls on deaf ears. In Now Zealand there is not the slightest doubt that, in private life, people are spending too much on imported luxuries, and it is time to call a halt and consider the position. New Zealanders particularly dislike the idea of trusts and combines, and rightly so; bn I we must nor forget that anything in the nature of a trust is also disliked in Great 'Britain. It would he unforiunatc if the lormation of pools for the management and sale of all our products were carried to such extremes as to impress our customers across the seas with the idea that, whatever (ho conditions were in New Zealand, we intended either by flooding the market or by keeping it bare, to extract the last penny possible for our wares. Dei me say again, tlmt- the United Kingdom is our great market, and by ordinary ,„etliods wo have built up an increas-

business i Imre: hut if the

ga'ined currency that wo intended to exploit ii for all we were worth, it is conceivable that Hie people generally might refrain from buying New Zealand prod lifts and turn their attention l„ oilier lands for their requirement.-. They have grown accustomed to the ordinary rules ot supply and demand, and they bear with eqttaii-

iniiiv soaring prices when supply is plentiful. The proper storing, shipping and marketing of our wares is essential, but the greatest care should he taken lo avoid even the appearance of price-fixing or market rigging, more especially at the present time, when everything from New Zealand is popular in tire Mother Country, and when al tempts are being made to draw tli** bonds of Umpire closer, eemiomically as well :.s socially. When ! was in the Old Country -cully I noticed with much gratilicat ion the high esteem in which New Zeala ml and 'Now Zealanders were held. 'Without a doubt this favourable impression is to lie traced to the men who went overseas to light the

I. allies 111 tin* 'Umpire, to the, way they lived, and lo the way they died, and il. behoves us that we should be extremely careful in tbe future that we do uni hing to alienate Ibe good-

will so engendered. *.V,. are generally settling down to tlie even tenor ol our ways ; bit b\ hit wo are getting back to conditions which prevailed prior to 11)1 U. New Zealanders possess a great inheritance: a productive country with an equable climate, where extremes are unknown, a land of fertile plains and smiling uplands: a people of line Bluish stock as pure as that to be loiiud in the heart of England. AYe have* many valuable assets, and if. minding our own business, we exercise ordinary wisdom in the general management of our a (fairs, the future vel()f our country is assured. AYo „hall naturally have ups and downs like others, but if we work and strive with ii due regard to the unity and well-being of all the varied sections of our mighty Empire, we m • c ‘" Zealand must, in the general prosperity of a united people, reap all abundant harvest.