DUTCH PROSPERITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 874, 18 January 1930, Page 10

DUTCH PROSPERITY

MODERN COAL MINES OUTPUT NEARLY DOUBLED Statistics compiled by the Netherlands Trading Company, Holland, seem to show that the economic development of that country is remarkably progressive. The figures are compiled every six months, and cover the entire field of Dutch activity. Shipping, as a whole, is hardly remunerative, says the journal, in which the figures are published. International competition and the rapidity with which material under present circumstances becomes obsolete, making continued modernisation imperative, must be considered the main causes of the difficulty. There is, however, some improvement which may be explained by the continued increase in the Dutch trade movement. The figures published show that there has been an increase of 2.038 thousands of guilders over the 1928 figures in the trade movement. The Dutch coal mines, which may now be counted as the most modern in Europe, have nearly doubled their production in the last five years, while the number of workers has increased by barely 20 per cent. Before the war this branch of industry was relatively of little value. It has now developed into one of the important sources of livelihood in the country.