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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 250, 22 April 1912, Page 3

THE MONEY MARKET.

The New Zealand Trade Review, referring to the money market, says:—There is no doubt that the general supply of money has lessened recently, and' the firmer tone of the market referred to last month is still noticeable, but does not amount to anything in the nature of real stringency. ft appears fairly certain that our imports to March 31 will exhibit a further increase, but our exports for the last quarter will probably be the same as at December 31. This matter has recently been engaging more attention than usual in the local papers on account of the narrow margin between the two. Our exports should undoubtedly provide enough to pay for our imports and outside interest obligations, but in this connection it must be remembered that a good part of our loans come out in the form of goods, and that, especially in a young country like New Zealand, a fair amount of the imports ; are needed for capital expenditure rather ; than daily consumption. Thus we see that from 1870 to 1885 we had an average yearly excess of imports of roughly 2 ] / 2 millions a year. We see, therefore, that the present position of imports approximately equalling exports is nothing new, but still it should engage the atten° tion of those interested in the direction, firstly, of reducing importation, and, secondly, of further settlement of the land to increase the production of our primary products.