CAR IMPORTATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 January 1921, Page 7

CAR IMPORTATIONS.

CURTAILMENT OF ORDERS. CONSIGNMENTS FROM AMERICA. MUST DECREASE, ' Auckland, Jan. 14. Importation of motor-cars from the United States has been checked of late. It is said that difficulty in financing is the cause. New Zealand, since the war, has been importing thousands of cars from Canada and the American Union. Canada supplies most of the cars, chiefly the cheap Ford, which is made in Ontario, and sent under a special arrangement to all the British Dominions, while the American Ford Company exports to the rest of the world. During the past year, roughly, about nine thousand motor-cars were imported into New Zealand, the majority from Canada and almost all the remainder from the United States. Now because the balance of trade is against New Zealand, in other words because New Zealand has been importing far more than she has been exporting, bankers here, in an endeavor to rectify this unsatisfactory condition, find themselves compelled to (curtail credits in the United States, especially in luxury trades. Payments for goods imported* thence lower the ’London balances of the New Zealand banks and thus aggravate a financial condition which already has caused some uneasiness. Imports of American cars will not be immediately shut off, but it is expected that lack of ease in financing purchases will reduce, for the present at any rate, the number of ears bought. The loss of trade to the American factories will not affect them very seriously, as most of them at present have reduced or ceased production, there being less purchasing power in the home market just now. Few cars come from Great Britain to this country as a general thing, and these are chiefly of the high-priced .variety.