The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1931. BRITAIN’S WEALTH.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 October 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1931. BRITAIN’S WEALTH.

Till', figures which testify to the vast accumulation of Britain’s capital and its successful investment are simply amazing in their magnitude. Her total wealth .is estimated at' £22,500,000, or about £SOO per head of population. Cash to the amount of £2,800,000,000 is deposited in British banks and other financial institutions. British investments abroad total £4,500,000,000 earning on the average £250,000,000 a year. Even Americans, who have some excuse for boasting of the constant growth of their national wealth and their rapid advancement to the rank of a creditor nation, have only £3,000.1X10,000 invested abroad, and their returns are not comparable to Britain’s. Not long since reference was made in the House of Commons to the decline in Britain’s “invisible exports”—in other words, to the income which the country draws annually in return for “services rendered” in connection with international finance and international trade. Last year the value of these “invisible exports” was estimated at about £430,000,000. and though this, actually does represent a decline from previous records, it is surely a most substantial fraction of the public revenue. One of the chief sources of these magnificent returns, is Britain’s shipping trade. Though the British mercantile marine suffered so severely in the Great War, Britain has under her flag about 20,000,000’ tons of .shipping, or about 1.000,000 tons more than in 1014, The United States, Britain’s nearest mercantile rival, lias only 10,000,000 tons of ocean-going shipping, and Germany a little over 4,000,000 tons, which is 1,000,000 tons less than before the war. Thus on the high seas Britain's mercantile fleets are still unrivalled, and the income of £115,000,000 which she drew last year from her shipping represents a level of mercantile p^ctiiity and prosperity which no other nation has yet attained. But Britain does not rely on mercantile statistics alone to support her claim to wealth and solvency. The total amount in cheques and bills paid last year through the London Bankers’ Clearing House was over £13.000,000.0011 —a row of figures which onlv an astronomer could appreciate adequately. And even though British industries are depressed and exports have in V comparative sense declined. Britain last year sold more than £IOC i'.0.000 worth of ships and machinery * > tb" outer world. British net-ring ■■orlucts—British rails end bridges, !•’ iti-h iron and steel vdant and mate.! il British telephones, British aeroplanes—are being manufacture;! at Home in huge o quantities

for the consumption and use of foreigners. The ’ customers for such British products range from China, to Peru, from Finland to Australia; and even Pittsburg, (he great centre of the American iron and steel trade, has been buying British machinery by the thousand tons. Collectively these facts and figures make up a truly wonderful record, and if, as the pessimists tell us, Britain is really on the down-grade, she clearly hr 3 a long way and a long time to go before sbe reaches perdition.