NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 225, 23 February 1928, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRITAIN’S CUSTOMERS. Under the caption, “ Misleading Figures,” the Auckland Chamber of Commerce Journal has the following: —“ An excellent example of the way in which figures may deceive the unwary is furnished by an article by J. R. -Collins, C.M.G., C.8.E., on ‘ The Progress of Australia ’ in The Statist for sth November, 1927. The following , figures showing destinations of 1926 exports from the United Kingdom is quoted as evidence that Australia is Britain’s second best customer: India, £B2m.; Australia, £6lm.; U.S.A., £4Sm.; Irish Free State, £35m.; South African Union, £32m.; Canada, £26m.; Germany, £26m.; Argentine, £23m.; New Zealand, £2lm.; France, £2om. “ If, however, the table is recaste so that the imports of the various countries from Britain are shown on a per capita basis (so much per head of population in the importing country) the order of the countries listed is radically altered and becomes:— New Zealand, £ls; Irish Free State, £l2; Australia, £10; South Africa, £4 10s; Canada, £2 10s; Argentine, £2 ss; France, 10s; U.S.A. and Germany, each 8s; India, 7s. “ Well done, New Zealand.”

There is room for a difference of [ opinion as to which of these ways of stating the position is misleading. In our view the per capita basis is the misleading one. The best customer is the country taking the highest total value of goods, the amount per head of population being merely incidental. It is gratifying, from patriotic motives, to find ' New Zealand’s per capita purchases so high, although even here, to be quite honest with ourselves, we must take note of the fact that we are not a manufacturing country, which also has a bearing on the question. It is the Auckland journal, and not The Statist, that is responsible for the use of figures in a misleading manner. The results of such misuse are harmful, causing the general public to expect preferential treatment for New Zealand as Britain’s best customer, when, as the figures in The Statist show, New Zealand is only ninth on the list, and a long way behind some foreign countries, where we must remain w-ith our small population. Sentiment is a grand and glowing and revitalising quality, but it must end disastrously if not founded upon sincerity and a perfect devotion to the truth.