THE COMING YEAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2222, 4 January 1921, Page 3

THE COMING YEAR.

PROSPECTS}' FOR DOMINION

INDUSTRIES,

STATEMENT BY MR ' MASSEY.

Auckland, Deccmb. >lO. The prospects for the Dominion’s industries for the coming year were discussed by the Prime Minister in an interview yesterday. “Xalurally,”' he said, “we cannot expect war prices jjnd the conditions croaUkl for us by the war to go on for ever. AVe have reached a point where a return to normal is becoming more and more obvious; The chief thing, to be remembered is that we are dependent on the outside world for the greater part of our prosperity. We sell our wool, jam!'meat, and other products, in'the world market, and whatever changes occur in that affect us, in spite of ourselves. .Just at present meat prices are reasonable, but: the wool market is our chief trouble, and itjis hardly to be expected that we shall have a return to the high prices we got din - ing the war. The great thing now

is to get back fq, a sound basis, and that will largely depend on the manner in which the wool now in .-England is disposed of.” Reference was made to the Australian wool realisation scheme, but Mr Massey did not sec much hope for New Zealand in that connection. “The difficulty is this,” he explained. “It is easy for Australia, for it is disposing of the finer grad; .. es of wool, but ours is mainly crossbreds, and is sold in a different kind of market. We shall, of course, do whatever we e;jn to restore the wool, market to a sound state, Imt, mitu- • rally, it will tnkfe a little time for the readjustment to be made." Asked as to the generic financial outlook for 1921, the Prime Minister was not as pessimistic as the bankers. “I do not see why New. Zealand should not go ahead in the coming year.” he said, “though, of course, we cannot expect to have the prosperity that we had from the huge sums of money paid into the country by the Imperial Government during .the war lor the produce they bought from'us. We are still enjoying the prosperity brought about by the millions we received in that way, but sooner or later that mu-t come to an end, and we must he prepared to take what prices we.can get in the markets of the world. But on the whole J think the financial outlook is reasonably good, and that there has been an inipfonsrSTn" t>s;'&me extent of late, altluiigh that would hardly be .uWWed byg xfinancial authorities.” . :• J Reference to the prospects of extending our meat trade to the LniH'd States brought from Mr Massey an ixpression of the hope that such a •market could be secured, but he was not over sanguine. “In that mar-

ket,” he pointed out, “what they ■wgdiietly waul, is our lamb, and we Jean not sell - that exclusively withhold prejudicing our market m GreatVrl'taimxainl that, after all, is the best niavkp»w'<c-b»«^ fc 'But we naturally want all the market:- we can secure for our products. Immigration from Great' ffrifuin being mentioned, t ho Premier dwt'closed the remarkable fact t hiitN there were no less than one thousand heads of families in the United, Kingdom waiting to .-eciuc passages' to come to New Zealanf|..“M e arc in a position, to secure great numbers of settlers there at the |>rosent time,” he said. “We take every eare to see that they are suitable, arid the chief difficulty at the moment is that of securing, shipping accommodation, lhe advantages of New Zealand are becoming better known, and we should, during the next vear, secure all the immigration we can absorb. There are over 1,000 heads of families in England at lhe present time sending to come to New Zealand to settle.”