The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1915. THE OUTLOOK.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 100, 3 December 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1915. THE OUTLOOK.

, At the half-year General Meeting of the shareholders in the think of New Zealand, the Chairman of Directors, as is now usual, made some observations with regard to existing conditions. Naturally he made allusion td the great conflict in which the Empire is engaged, expressing the view pretty generally now accepted that all the circumstances seem to point to thb conclusion that the war is to lie a war of exhaustion, and that victory ultimately will lie on the side of the combination possessing the greater capacity for endurance. He also quite rightly reminds us that unless thesource of supply lie limitless, it is plain that it is only a question of time, and of rate of putlay, when the end of even the most ample resources must be reached. This obvious fact is the one which, lie considers, at the present time, the British Empire stands most in need of realising. Mr Beauchamp went on to say; “Owing to the segregation ol the Allies, and the distances which separate the component parts of our own far-flung Empire the cost of marshalling the Allies’ forces and placing them at the points where they are required to engage ir hostilities, is in itself enormous. This is a.ii expense from which our enemies - i'c almost entirely free. The contiguity and compactness of their territories, and the completeness of their strategic lines of railways, enable them to move Hi air forces in lar; numbers with groat facility and at • minimum of expense. Therein onr Cannes have a decided advantage over ns. But these are not the only advantage : they enjoy, for we have'to admit that our entire outlay is on a vastly more costly scale than theirs.

Our soldiers are better paid, better clothed, better fed, and better eared for. This superiority of conditions, though most commendable, is purchased at a very great price. Again, instead of being, as our enemies largely are, self-contained and self-dependent, producing within our own borders part of what we require for our support and for the prosecution of the war, and discharging our internal obligations by means of a paper currency, wo are drawing supplies, civil and military from almost every quarter of tlie Globe, and paying our debts in coin. This, of. course, involves us in enormous additional expense. for the price demanded by the foreign manufacturer or producer has to he paid in gold, and transit charges added. Generally, therefore, it is a case of making war on a basis that is calculated to strain our financial resources to the uttermost.’ We think that this position is being forced borne to Britishers in all parts of the Empire, and that all must agree with the opinion that it behoves us, therefore, to face our own economic problems in the spirit in which they confront their’s, and to set our own affairs in the best possible order with the least possible delay. Mr Beanchamp, dealing with financial matters more particularly, speaks hopefully of the outlook, and remarks that prospects continue good for all descriptions of the Dominion’s primary products.