THE GERMAN IRON TRADE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2465, 1 December 1886, Page 2

THE GERMAN IRON TRADE.

According to Tho Times \and some other journals the Germans are beginning to feel the keon thrust, not »nly of the badness of tho times, but of competition with perfidious Albion, especially in tt)i iron trade and kindred industries, whleh are as depressed as ever. It is all ths' fault of England, it is bub who is roapor> Bible for the lowuess of pries, and the foreign journals complain..thew- i» no' prospect of the downward ten- . dency checked.. The rail 1 trade thoro is suffering most severely,'™ owing especially to tho broak up of tie railmakers convention, which bound tho . members thereof to sell at oertain fixed prices. The dissolution of this eo-psrt-nery brought about a drop ofnwrly £Ji e> ton or more, and this fact is ono to bt noted by all buyer* at the present moms at A reaotion everywhere seams inimitnnt, and those,, who are wanting rails and . acw»of fell: Blrould take the •■■cue and obtain.wljai. they want with'tho least poaeible. delay, There h an obormoni ext*nsjon of railway enterprise in the' United States now going on, and' tha iron dis•tricts in this country are busily tmployel in making blooms for export to Amevto, thero to be rolled into raila; Th* »»< ■ plaiuti, however,, of the German* ar« worthy of note by Fair and Proteotloi tradbra,'for by the power of Freetradft English manufacturers are actually able ' to almost undersell tho Gornuns in ihtif own markots, notwithstflcding that tb» Continental tariffs are so high m to Ik almost prohibitive.

. .:.,' IgBE • ' The Dateh are proverbial iprphelgm yet many a quaint and proktv legend cepi from Holland. When, two ywn *go, the bicentenary of the invention of the thimble was celebrated at.Amsterdtm the world was reminded th&t it owed thk indlspensible adjunct of a seamstress' work box to. the gallantry of a young.' Dutch goldsmith, who devteed ih« flwt "thumb-boll" as it was originally ttinl for the protection of his l&df lorrt delicate digits. It.is only p»M wk» now wear too thimble os the thumb.