TRADE WITH THE EAST.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1922, Page 5

TRADE WITH THE EAST.

NEW ZEALAND PRODUCTS. CHINA, JAPAN, AND MALAYA INTERESTED. After an absence of ten years, during which time he has had wide experience in Great Britain, the United States of America, and the Far East, Mr. Leslie G. Lilly, formerly of Dunedin, has returned to the Dominion, and is now in Wellington. Prior to the war, Mr. Lilly represented an oldestablished British exporting house in the United States and Canady, and for about a year after the cessation of hostilities he managed the West End London branch office of firm. For health reasons he was advised to proceed to the East, whence he has just returned.

Conversing with a Times reporter he said he had had very favorable opportunities of meeting important business men in the countries he had visited during his absence from New Zealand. These included the members of the Japanese Trade Commission now in Europe, of which two of the principals are Viscount Shibisawa. “the grand old man of the Japanese business world,” and Mr. T. Furuja, managing director of the Koto Trading Company, Tokio. Mr. Lilly was impressed with the great possibilities of opening up trade with the East in New Zealand products, and said he had found business men in Malaya, China, and Japan very interested in the Dominion and anxious for information regarding its products. He also expressed the opinion-that there is an opening for big business in butter and cheese in the United States.

During the war Mr. Lilly obtained ft commission in a British cavalry regiment serving in the Middle East, and on demobilisation, held the rank of captain and adjutant. Until the end of 1912, when he went to London to gain experience, he was in the employ f Messrs. Butterworth Bros., Ltd., and Messrs. Sargood Son and Ewen, for whom he travelled in different parts of the Dominion. In London he was in the employ of Messrs. Smith and Lister, warehousemen and manufacturers, and he was subsequently appointed travelling representative of that firm and Messrs. Stapley and Smith in opening up new business centres in the U.S.A, and Canada. Some months after his return to his former employment in London he was advised to proceed to a warmer climate, and immediately entered upon a contract with the Asiatic Petroleum Company, Ltd, in the Far

He has now returned to the land of his birth, in which he sees many wide changes that have taken place during his absence.