NOTES AND COMMENTS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1928, Page 3

NOTES AND COMMENTS

LONDON, July 28. FOREIGN “PUSH” IN SOUTH . AFRICA. The British Trade Commissioner in Johannesburg has recently been visiting Natal, and has sent to this country some observations which should be of interest to British firms. He states that the manager of a leading importing house informed him that theoretically all supplies bought by district managers should he obtained, where possible, from the United Kingdom, hut in actual fact the tendency was to buy any goods brought prominently to the notice of the buyer, provided they were suitable. This policy was deprecated, but it was explained that it was an evil difficult to eradicate as the representatives of competitive nations were so irequent in their visits anil demonstrations. The attractive displays of American goods were instanced in particular, and the case was quoted of a representative of a corest firm who gave notice in advance.of an intention to give demonstrations at all the firm’s branches. America, it seems, lias almost captured the corset market in South Africa.

CHILEAN NITRATE. The efforts which the Chilean nitrate industry has made to meet the competition of the synthetic product have gone a step further by the devising of a scheme for the centralisation of selling. Some six months ago the Producers’ Association reorganised its representation abroad and appointed ’Sir A. H. Goldfinch as Director-Gen-eral in London for propaganda anil other work. According to a correspondent. representatives of all the leading producing and importing firms have been invited to join a directorate in London which is to he vested with dictatorial [lowers concerning sales this side in the hope of reducing wasteful rivalry. The recent lowering of the selling price of nitrate has been accompanied by substantial increases in sales and it will be interesting to see whether this new move will accentuate the tendency.

WOOL STATISTICS. Most business men will find it very liaril to understand why difficulty should have arisen between the Bradford Chamber of Commerce and the. Economic Committee of the League of Nations. Bradford has done splendid work for the wool"textile trade, and any organisation that does not secure tlio co-operation of the chamber can scarcely claim to represent the industry as a whole. It is to he hoped that some way will he found to reconcile the existing differences, for this is certainly not the moment when an important trade should proclaim to the world that it is incapable of cooperating harmoniously in such » conipu rati velv uuionlrovcrsial matter as the compilation of statistics. YELLOW FEVER, IX RIO. Rather unaccountably n few cases of yellow fever have made their appearance in two suburban districts of the city, and it is possible that the prominence given to the subject in the Press, and the immediate precautionary measures taken on a comprehensive scale led'by the public lioaltli authorities, may have led to the belief elsewhere that this fever was prevalent here, which is not the ease. The total number of patients treated, according to reliable reports is .somewhere in the region of 30—or one. in 50.000. of the population. There has been absolutely no scare among residents. who arc confident that in view of the. prompt measures taken and of the present cool season unfavourable to mosquito propagation this threat of recrudescence will be averted. Ihe public. of course, are not unconcerned. It was believed that yellow fever had been omul id red not only Iro'in Rio but throughout Brazil, and these isolated eases come as a reminder that immunity must lie preserved by a strict adherence to the practices which have attained that result.

SHIPPING TONNAGE LAID UP. Shipping is usually in the doldrums by midsummer, and the present year has been no exemption. At the beginning o.f July there were no fewer than 233 ships of 495.866 net tons laid lip in the principal ports of the British Isles, compared with 231 of 363.355 tons three months ago. Ihe significant feature is that although the number, of ships about the same tonnage is about* 36 per cent greater, indicating that the* larger ships, <cr those on the longer ocean routes, have been affected. If. for tlic purpose of comparison, one rules out the abnormal year of 1926, when owing to the coal strike there was at one time a wholesale laying-up of tonnage, it is necessary to go back three years to find a parallel state of affairs. The only consolation is that .Tidy is with very few exceptions the quietest time of the year for -shipping.