WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON NEWS

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK. (Special to “ Guardian WELLINGTON, Dec. 16. The trade cycle .so far as New Zealand is concerned appears to be moving in the direction favourable to the Dominion. This view is based on the official figures for October and November, which are the first two months of the produce year 1927-28. The exports lor those two months totalled t 0,181,182, which compares with £1,296,957 in the corresponding two months of last year, an increase of £884,225, which is partly due to higher prices and partly to an increase in production. particularly of butter. The imports for the two months amounted to £7,149,709. as against £8,097,099. a decrease of £917,590. Thus it will he seen that in the two months we were better off by £"1,831,615 than we were at the end of November last year, and this was brought about by selling more to other countries, and buying less from them and so the overseas trade position of the Dominion is being adjusted. The imports for the two months exceed the exports by £1,968,527, hut in the corresponding two months of last year the excess shown by imports amounted to the huge sum of £5,800,142, so that it will be seen that on balance we owe £1,831,615 less, which is the measure of the improvement. That the imports exceed the exports need not cause any alarm or anxiety, for the position is quite seasonal. October and November are necessarily months of heavy imports for traders are then stocking up for Christmas. The two months too also represent the period of light exports and the position will show radical and favourable changes by the end o' March when the hulk of the season’s products will linvc been exported. Tin outlook is decidedly good but that does mil warrant any reversion to extrava-

gance and waste. All DENTINE MEAT AVAL? ENDED It is not unlikely that frown meat prices will improve gradually. The market lias been depressed for two years while the exporting interests in the Argentine have been carrying on a trade war. Towards the end ol October tin amicable arrangement was reached by all the parties concerned. The firms directly affected by the dispute were Vestcy and Co., Sinithfield and Argentine Meat, A\ ilson and Co., Saiisienena Company, English and Dutch Meat, and River Plate and Continental Meat.. The -Meat Conference was formed in 1911 to regulate and control the trade, and broke up in .March 1925. The dispute arose mainly in respect to quotas. Previous to the break up of the conference the proportions of the trade were 584 per cent to the two large American companies and IU per cent to the other companies. Two of the large companies subsequently erected new works in the Plate, and that is declared to have begun the light. The facts were that two new companies purchased two old works from a British Company, and tliev had to he provided with a percentage of the trade. The big British Company, Vestey’s, erected new works, as did also a big American Company. The problem of assessing justly and to the satisfaction of the several firms the proportions of the trade to he alloctaod lias for over two years baffled all attempts at an amicable settlement, and in consequence there lias been severe competition between the companies, rates being reduced and supplies being sold in excess of market requirements, so forcing prices clown to below the cost price of the produce. '1 lie chicl points at issue were the ratio in which the trade was to he distributed between the exporting (inns; the position of the new companies, and their claims to a percentage; allocation for news works and expansion, and the claims for higher quotas hv American linns. According to laird Vestcy. *' the big firms will now work together in perfect harmony, and the result of this co-opera-tion must mean a continuation of low prices. Because of the greater volume of our trade, we can put meat oil the market at very little profit. I hat is the only reason we can sell so cheaply.” The agreement also aims at a fair and equitable distribution of refrigerating tonnage' for facilitating the transport of chilled beef from the River Plate to the (Tilted Kingdom, For over two years the Smithfudd meat market has been artificially depressed, and with this pressure removed tic l market should become normal and meat prices improve.