CHURCHILL’S SURPLUS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 324, 9 April 1928, Page 12

CHURCHILL’S SURPLUS

RUBBER MARKET WEAK REVIEW OF TRADE By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright, Reed. 9 a.m. LONDON, Sunday. The most noticeable feature of a short week on the Stock Exchange has been the remarkable strength of the gi!~ edged section. Under the combined influence of easy money conditions and the announcement that the nation’s revenue returns showed a surplus for the financial year of over P. 4,000,000, all the British funds showed improvement. "War Loan, 5 per cent., reached .CJG3, the highest q location since 1924, and Colonials have been in good demand at higher priaos.

There has also been a revival of activity in industrials, the only weak spot being rubbers, which s'umped on the Peine Minister’s announcement about the removal of restrictions.

Prices were marked down heavily, but without much actual selling. The rubber outlook at the moment is very obscure, and as the ’’Financial Time?” points out, “the dec ; sion to terminate the restriction is too racent for reasoned views to have been formed.” The “Financial Times” continues: “The long view is that when the inevitable initial period of unsettlement has passed, and calmer conditions prevail, the strength of British owned estates under new conditions will be realised, and market values will respond. The short view at the moment is that botfh commodity and share prices will decline, but even this should not be accepted slavishly.” One of the most important Stock Exchange firms specialising in rubber shares mentions heavy demand of the United States as a noticeable feature of the share market, transatlantic interests being prepared to take all the shares offered at sacrificing prices. The same thing occurred in February, when the market weakened after Mr. Baldwin’s initial announcement, from which the firm deduces that, whoever may have lost faith in the future of the British planting industry, it is not the Americans. PRICE OF MOTOR TYRES The fall in rubber prices is causing motorists to wonder how long it will be before the prices of tyres are reduced. Inquiries made of a number of leading manufacturers have not resulted in any definite promise of early reduction, although it is admitted that the question must be considered. The managing-director of one tyre cor ~-v said no reduction was likely at present, but he was disposed to look for a possible 20 per cent, drop in prices toward the end of the year, but not before. DISSATISFIED WITH AUSTRALIA Bradford textile men are expressing dissatisfaction with the way the alteration in the Australian tariff has been pushed through Parliament. A writer in the “Yorkshire Post” says: “Determined efforts are being made, and much money is being spent, to encourage trading within the Empire, and the immense sums which the Australians draw every year from us in payment for wool alone are regarded as sufficient reason why some official notification should have been given us of the intention to alter the duty on certain worsted piece goods to our detriment. Contrast is inevitably made with the consideration given by the Canadians, who do not draw from this district nearly as much money as the Australians.

“The cause of Empire trading is not likely to be promoted by what the Australians have done. That the Australians desire to develop their own domestic wool textile industry is appreciated in this district, but in the case of st)ch wool textiles as they cannot make themselves, and are obliged to import; they might have increased the measure of preference given to goods made in this country. That would have been more in harmony with the schemes for developing trade within the Empire.”—A. and N.Z.