REVIVAL OF TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 October 1921, Page 5

REVIVAL OF TRADE.

BETTER SIGNS AT HOME. WOOL MARKET HOPEFUL. PROSPECTS FOR PRODUCE. "The conditions of the wool market are better, and there is a more hopeful tone in the Bradford wool market than there has been for a long time.*’ This is one of several striking statements in an optimistic survey of the British trade outlook given by Mr. Mark Sheldon, Trade Commissioner for Australia in the United States, in an. interview at New Yerk. By Telegraph.—Press Asjn —Copyright. Received Oct. 2, 5.5 p.m. New York, Oct. 1. The Australian Press Association interviewed Mr. Mark Sheldon, who has arrived from Europe. He said: “As far as I could observe there is a realisation in Britain that both Capital and Labor are necessary for reviving trade upon less inflated lines. The fall in the price of coal is gradually reviving many industries, and works that have been closed for some time are opening again, especially in the iron and steel trades.

‘The conditions of the wool market are also better. There is a more hopeful tone in the Bradford wool market than there has been for a long time. Shipping is still in a bad way. It is not so much a question of freight rates as the actual want of business. Shipbuilding in Britain, like the rest of the world, is at a standstill, and no new orders of any importance have been taken.

“Concerning retail prices, I can say that during the last two or three weeks retailers began to show they are facing the situation by evidence of a greater tendency to meet market conditions through lowering prices. The wholesale prices in a great many lines are considered to have reached the bottom. The buying power of the British public has very much diminished. This is the result of unemployment, which was brought to a head by the great coal strike and the general depression of trade, which is only just beginning to lift.

A complete revival of trade will be a long process. Unemployment is gradually decreasing, but not as fast as would be desired. Public opinion in Britain is getting very active for retrenchment, and the curtailment of Government expenditure. This, with the question of unemployment, will in all likelihood have great domestic issues in Britain during the next eighteen months. Although the dollar is at a premium in relation to the sterling, the latter has so appreciated relative to other European currencies that it severely handicaps exports of British manufactured goods. In the last few weeks, however, there is a better tone in the export field, because it is felt that foreign competition in most lines has gone the limit in the way of low prices. There is one point in the readjustment of values throughout Europe which may have a very good influence, as it will enable the controllers of the currency in European nations who are anxious to deflate to begin to reduce the paper issue. This will be a God-send to Europe, and less paper money and greater purchasing power of the existing currencies will go a long way to solving present economic difficulties and restoring general confidence.

“What is the position of Australasian commodities on the British markets?”— “From observations I believe Britain will, as in the past, be a great market for Australasian products, and though at the present moment British markets are well—or perhaps over —supplied with such goods as meats, this is merely a temporary matter, resulting from the disposal of products that came under Government control.”— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.