Brighter Outlook

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 474, 2 October 1928, Page 13

Brighter Outlook

Insurance Manager Talks of English Trade CHEAP POWER IN SIGHT Trade in England is prospering, larqe plants for the production of electricity are being installed, and the railways are now able to compete with the motorbuses. This is the optimistic report given this morning by Mr. J. IX Simpson, assistant manager of the Liverpool. London and Globe Insurance Company and of the Central Insurance Company, who arrived by the Ulinmroa on a business tour of New Zealand. Mr. Simpson said that he has come out to rearrange the company's business, and in future all business with New .Zealand will be done direct to Liverpool and not through Sydney as formerly. The cotton trade is going through a difficult period at Home, he said, due to the price of cotton and competition with artificial silk. Competition with the East is also seriously hampering the trade in England. Mr. Simpson said that a large quantity of Japanese cotton manufactured goods are flooding into Bombay, and that Bombay itself is also manufacturing cotton goods for India, thus depriving Lancashire of a good deal of trade. The English railways arc now able to compete with the enormous motor trade which has developed there since the war, said Mr. Simpson. The recent wage settlement has enabled the railway companies to do this, otherwise they would have been in serious financial difficulties. He stated that motor-buses now run from end to end of England and are complete with sleepers so that peoplo can travel at night. Tho lighter trades, such as the manufacture of artificial silk, motorcars and electrical goods are now doing excellently and the installation of huge plants for the production of electricity are bringing the hope of cheaper power for England. It has not come yet, said Mr. Simpson', but it will. As a result of the investigations of a Royal Commission a new Insurance Act is being brought into force a£ Home, he continued. This is the first proposal for any insurance legislation in Great Britain for 50 years. “The British insurance companies have been able to conduct their affairs so successfully that there lias been no need for reformative legislation," said Mr. Simpson. “The Government at Home is not a competitor of insurance companies." Regarding the political situation, Mr. Simpson said that there was a certain amount of doubt about the present, outlook. Rumours concerning Lord Birkenhead and Lloyd George (who is by no means a spent force), made the situation very intriguing. Mr. Simpson said that Mr. Hugh Lewis, general manager for both companies he is representing and an international figure in insurance circles, had intended coming out, but at the last moment he was unable to do sf and Mr. Simpson has come as his deputy.