The Sun TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1928 THE SILVER LINING

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 402, 10 July 1928, Page 8

The Sun TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1928 THE SILVER LINING

jl DIET of statistics is never an appetising fare, but in the trade and banking returns for the past 12 months, even the unemployed should find some solid nourishment for their hope of work too long deferred. The dry record of the country’s business during the period ought to make comforting reading for the men who gather each night round the fire on the friendly hearth of the doss-house at Parnell, and give heart to those others, about 300 a day, who depend on a generous mission soup-kitchen for real encouragement. It may seem churlish and derisively pessimistic to mention these unpleasant blots on the picture of national prosperity, but who honestly can whoop with the professional optimists when so many citizens are hungry and compulsorily idle? Still, conditions and prospects actually are better than they have been for several years. The country’s trade balance is exceptionally substantial, and far ahead of anything achieved in the same direction since the beginning of severe depression over three years ago. Exports have exceeded imports by more than £12,000,000. Producers have done well in increasing production to such an extent as to offset some of the decrease in values, while importers, restrained by the dearness of borrowed money, have had to be prudent in enterprise, and the expansion of business. The Customs returns demonstrate the extent of the restraint that was imposed on trade and commerce. Though the results in the main have been satisfactory, providing cause for a cheerful outlook, the means to the end were not pleasant. Perhaps the disciplinary value will enable importers to forget their experience of business limitation and depression, and inspire them, now that money is a little easier and prospects materially improved, to go ahead wisely, content to make progress steadily and not with an imprudent burst of speed. The banking returns clearly show that their expert administrators kept the shackles on commercial business too long. Their vigorous policy was right in principle and purpose, but its purpose was maintained beyond a reasonable period. No doubt their excellent intention was only to chastise their importunate clients with whips, but in an excessive financial zeal they chastised them with scorpions. The difference between deposits and advances ran into millions. Indeed, the excess of deposits over advances totalled £7,520,178, as compared with £4,262,740 a year ago. That difference explains a great deal of the commercial embarrassment, and incidentally justifies the advocacy by the Minister of Finance some months ago of a reduction in the bank rate. Now that the Associated Banks enjoy expansive resources and are assured of splendid dividends, their policy in future should tend to stimulate trade and commerce toward a welcome buoyancy. It is true that the Taxation Department’s returns reveal a big reduction in revenue, but that result was due to depressed business throughout the country, and not to the practice of generosity by the Government. Of course, the reduced duties on linoleum, gramophone records and other imports must have contributed something to the fall in revenue, but their effect would scarcely be worth serious consideration. There is a greater necessity than ever for a substantial reduction in the rate of taxation, and it is to be hoped that the Government and Parliament soon will devise means of essential relief from a chafing burden. They appear to be callously indifferent at the moment. It is reported by observers of the extravagant foolishness at Wellington, that although members themselves are sick and tired of the Address-in-Reply debate, the stupid whste of time and public money will meander on like a sluggish creek. If the sense of duty be dull, shame ought to drive legislators to useful work. THE TIMBER INDUSTRY pROBABLY no major industry in New Zealand has suffered * more serious depression in the past four years than sawmilling. In the period immediately following the war, the Dominion set out to make up a shortage of houses and the timber industry boomed. Then came a combination of circumstances —an economic slump, importations of cheaply-produced foreign timber, saturation point in house-building—causing the industry to fall on evil days. According to an announcement issued by the secretary of the Dominion Federated Sawmillers’ Association, the industry is still suffering from severe depression. At the same time, there is a hopeful note in Mr. A. Seed’s review of the position. The Dominion secretary does not waste tune in railing at the Government for its failure to impose a protective tariff. He is more concerned with what the sawmillers are doing to help themselves. Efforts are being made within the industry to re-establish it on a sounder footing. That is a wise step. Many small mills sprang up in the boom period which are now unable to meet the stress of keener competition. Closer co-ordination and co-operation are needed to eliminate economic waste, and to ensure more efficient working of the mills. A bel ter system of classification and marketing is also indicated. The timber industry is to be commended for its self-reliant attitude in tackling these problems, without undue clamour for State assistance or demand for a costly commission.