“A THRIFTY PEOPLE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 130, 23 August 1927, Page 13

“A THRIFTY PEOPLE”

NEW ZEALAND’S TRADE BANK CHAIRMAN’S VIEWS New Zealand has gone Through a year of depression fairly well, and the huge deposits in the Government and private savings banks is a wonderful evidence of the solidity of the mass of the people. Prefacing: these remarks at the annual meeting* of the National Bank of New Zealand, the chairman, the Hon. W. Pember Reeves, gave an interesting: resume of the principal items of trade in the country for the past year. The total exports for the year, he ■tated, amounted to £45,682,000. Of this, aalry produce was an easy first with £15,086,000; Wool, £11.916,000, second; froien meat, £8,389,000, third; and hides and skins, £3,204,000, fourth. These four items, therefore, accounted for £38,595,000 of New Zealand’s export trade. According to wool growers, the value of the year's wool exports was £1,368,000 lower than In 1928, although the number of bales ever, was not really bad. Much the largest amount of New Zealand wool is sold by auction in the Dominion before it is shipped. The average price for the wool thus sold was £IS 2a 94 a bale, compared with £l6 16s 2d tor the previous year. He believed that the fall in wool exports was due to the fluctuations In the dates of wool cargoes shipped. A good deal of last year’s clip *as not shipped before March 31, when hie year under review closed. New Zealand flocks continued to increase, now numbering about 25,000,000. THE FARMER’S POSITION Referring to the deflation of land values, Mr. Reeves held the opinion that the process did not have much farther to go. There had been a great many bankrupt *K rmers ’ and hundreds had walked off their farms leaving their property to their mortgagees. Then there were a large number of men, still caryring on, but nnable to employ the labour for effecting the improvement that their properties require. He agreed with a statement made *>}* the Minister of Lands that one of the Government’s tasks would be to endeavour to save this class of men. It was satisfactory to note that the Dominion had again been almost entirely free from any industrial troubles, and »nd speaking as one who had studied this question for half a lifetime, Mr. Reeves claimed that in proportion to her Population, New Zealand has, during the test 34 years, lost less through strikes and lock-outs than any other civilised country where labour Is well organised.