GERMAN BID

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 429, 13 January 1933, Page 2

GERMAN BID

\ BUSINESS IN N.Z. COWTINENTAL BELIEF'FOR j GOOD FUTURE IN { TRADE. ■ , DOMINION'S POPULARITY. ( Christchurch, Sat. J New Zealand is rog'arded on the Continent as the most hospitable eountry in the world. Wellington Rarbour can be compa'ved with sonie of the greatest of the world's harhotn s. Germany eonsumes more honey from New Zealand than Englancl and Seotlanil together. Unemploy- [ ment on the Continent is actually in- ! creasinR. but the general view of the j 5 osilioii is more optimistie than it lias j I been for the past two or three years, j j ro mueli so, in fact, that the largest ! firm of implement manufacturers in j Germany has sent Mr. H. Tronser to ! tour New Zealand and Australia. j Arrivinp; in Christchurch to-day j from Mannlieim, Germany, Mr. Tonj ser is touring the eountry in connectj ion with agricultureal tractors, and ; he is hopeful that a declining im- ! portation from the United States of ! America will react in favour of the ! Continent insofar as tractors are concerned. Although he said that he had ! not a very good command of the Eng- : lish language the visitor actually ! found no difficulty in giving graphi- | cally the results of his observations 1 on many subjects and he possessed ' a coneise fluency of speech that many an Englishman might envy. ! He arrived at Wellington yester- : day in the Tamaroa from England > after what was a very pleasant jour- ; ney on the whole, although it was not too warm. There Were only; two | or thfee really hot days, j'ust before ; reaching Panama, and for the first ! four or five days after leaving Southr i ampton' there were very heavy storms an dseas, the voyage being' delayed by as much as 100 miles in one day. Wonderful Harbours. "I was very much impressed by the wonderful picture which Wellington gave at night in the harbour, with all the lights burning up to the tops of 'the hills. I had heard a good deal of Wellington, but I had never imagined such a wonderfully situated harbour. In my opinion it is one of the most wonderful harbours in the world. It can easily stand cpmparison with Naples or one of those famous harbours," he said. "Another thing that impressed me was the very fine first sight of the land near Lyttelton early this morning. I always understood that the land round Christchurch was flat, as indeed, it is, but I had thought that the coast was flat, too, and I was really surprised. At first sight of Lyttelton Harbour I thought of the Norweigian coast, where the high mountains come down to the sea, and the little bays remind me of the fjords. "We lcnow in Europe that New Zealand is chiefly dependant on agricultural and dairy produce, and we know that prices are down, but still this is a young eountry and we think that it never has been as badly down as those industrial countries such as England, Germany and the United States. And we think on the Continent that New Zealand will be one of the first countries to recover from the depression. "We are very optimistie as regards New Zealand. I have come here to visit old business friends with a view to looking after the tractor business, agricultural tractors, which have developed very nicely in this eountry in the last two years." Mr . Tonser represents Heinrich Lanz, which he describes as the biggest firm in Europe for agricultural machinery, The people on the Continent, as well as those in England, thought that it was much in their favour . that there was at present a general opinion against America in connection with the war debts. Just as New Zealand had inereased . its importation of British motor cars, and American importations had gone back, so it was hoped that Europe might profit in the tractor business. Since there was no English competition in this lin'e of machinery his firm, as a Cpntinental' firm, might profit from the background movement of the importations from the United States. German Trade. Conditions on the Continent were still very bad. Unenlployment was even increasing, but a very important 'thing was that the view generally was more optimistie than it had been during the last two or three years, and he thought that the present psychological movement would be "one of the most important faetors in the ending of the depression. There was a most definite turn for the better, and his firm belieyed that ,the time had arrived when old business friends "should be visited and preparations made for the better times. The recovery would be slow, of course, but thpy were convinced that they had come round 'the corner by now, and that the worst of the depression was passed. '' "Yesterday I' had the opportunity of studying the Government statistics of exports and imports in Wellington," said Mr. Tronser, "and there are feome big mistakes in them so far as the export iigures for honey are concerned, comjpared with the import figures of the German and English Governments. "Germany imports more honey from New Zealand than England and Scotland together. Yet. the export figures from this eountry show a much higher figure for England than from Germany. "The reaison is quite a 'simple one. 'Honpy is shipped to London even if its final destination is Germany. German hnporters have the^onsignments iaddressed to London," and'\yhen it arrjves there it is loaded to other ships for German ports, without passihg throfigh thie Customs. The New Zealand figur.es ' sliow this hcjney' as expprted to England, which, of cqurse, is not correct. ' "The same thiri^' applies to hutter and , cheese, though not to the same extent as to honey. Everywhere in •tAe big towns in Germany, Bqrlin, ilamburg and so o(n, you seq New Zealand honey advertised, and it is .really liked. ' My own' parents, who live, in ' Heidelburg, verir ; of |en pay-