The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1926. A GREAT FUTURE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 September 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1926. A GREAT FUTURE

The general elections are proceeding in Canada just now and the political situation is so involved, that much interest will centre round the great event. The effect on the material progress of the country is involved also in the issue. Conceding that Canada’s elections this week will have a future hearing on its own business mul perhaps on the standing of the Dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations, the average Canadian is now more proudly concerned with the reports which have just been made at Ottawa showing that Canada has the largest favourable trade balance per capita of any country in the world. For the fiscai year 1926, this balance amounted to £80,226,881, an increase over the previous year of nearly £23,■'>oo.ooo. During one of the war years the trade balance of Canada once aggregated £133.000,000, but this was an abnormal condition. The entire foreign trade of Canada daring the fiscal year ending March 31st. 1926. amounted to £457.187,974. an increase of 21.1 per cent, over the preceding year. Imports ns well ns exports show an improvement over the years 1925 and 1924, the increase in exports, however, being greater than imports. Of

the total increase in Canada’s trade, 1926, compared with 1925, imports accounted for 24.5 per cent., and exports for 65.5 per cent, whereas imports accounted for only 11.2 per cent, of the total increase from 1924 to 1926, while exports accounted for 88.8 per cent. The trade of Canada with the United. Kingdom during the year ending March 31st., 1926, was valued at £134,597,719 compared with a similar trade in 1925, valued at £109,650,399, representing an increase of £24,947,117, or about 22.8 per cent. Imports accounted for 89.8 per cent. During the fiscal year ended March3lst., 1926, the trade of Canada with the United States amounted to £219,136,049 as against a 'trade in 1925 of £187,392,930, the increase amounting to £31,743,119 or 16.9 per cent. Imports accounted for 63 per cent, of the total increase and exports for '37 per cent. The present population of the Dominion of Canada is less than ten million people. It- will he seen that the international trade of tbs comparatively small population represents something like £45 per capita. If the trade of the United States was relatively as large per capita, the total would represent a sum approximately of five billion pounds, which is much more than double the entire existing commerce. Canada’s great trade, of course, originates in the agricultural supplies and the products of forests, etc., which arc shipped abroad. Since, the Dominion does not import as much as she exports, the difference between the two items is duo tier in the form of exchange settlements and balances. The settlement does not work out on any basis resembling cash, for Canada’s interest hill is heavy and other obligations of a debit nature must be met. It is still true, nevertheless, that much investment capital is flowing into the Dominion, so that her supplies of liquid funds are increasing. The remarkable increase in the favourable balance during the last two or three years is contributing largely to the improvement in Canadian exchange. During the fiscal year of 1926 the Canadian dollar was usually on a parity with the United States dollar. The resources of the Dominion are so vast that for many years Canada will require and will invite outside capital in their development. Every dollar so employed helps to create new wealth. At the present rate of growth Canada is destined some day to be one of the richest countries in the world, «s she is now one of the richest in the potential resources that remain undeveloped.