H.—44.

Manufacture of lanoline in New Zealand. Steamer service between New Zealand and Norfolk Island. Wider use of New Zealand kauri-gum. Utilization of scrap tin. Possibilities of exporting edible fats from New Zealand and prospects of successful marketing in the United Kingdom. Production of strawboard from New Zealand wheat-straw. Establishment of tung-oil industry in New Zealand. Utilization of fish-waste. Production of woollen moquettes in New Zealand suitable for motor trade. Establishment of felt-slipper industry in New Zealand. Utilization of Onakaka iron for manufacture of pipes. Suitability of New Zealand leather for purposes of motor trade. Production and marketing of engineers' waste from New Zealand tow. Marketing of New Zealand osiers in Australia. Marketing of Samoan cocoa-beans in New Zealand. Marketing of glycerine in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Marketing of New Zealand mutton and lamb in Canada. Use of frozen rabbits as food for foxes in Canada and possibility of developing export trade in frozen rabbits from New Zealand for that purpose. Marketing of fullers' earth in Canada. Shipping from South Island ports to Australia. The importance of the Department's work briefly referred to in this section cannot be too strongly emphasized. Conclusion. The Department has maintained a close association with Chambers of Commerce, Trade Commissioners stationed in the Dominion, other State Departments, Control Boards, and similar bodies. While trading and financial conditions in the past year have been distinctly unsatisfactory to commercial interests and the general economic state of the Dominion is reflected in a serious measure of unemployment, it is reasonable to expect a definite improvement in conditions during the summer of 1931-32. The seasonal influences on production, and consequently on employment, are particularly strong in a country such as New Zealand, where agricultural and pastoral products are of major importance. Production from several of our leading industries has shown a continuous increase in recent years, and this increased output must in some measure at least offset the adverse effects of falling price-levels. The markets for several of our main exportable lines have shown at least some recovery from the low points reached in past months, and there is certainly support for the suggestion that a revival of confidence in the minds of investors and traders is all that is needed to bring about a definite improvement in conditions. It is a remarkable fact that the banking returns and the experience of large concerns which accept money on deposit give every evidence that available funds have to an increasing extent been placed on fixed deposit, reflecting the general lack of confidence in industrial and trading securities. The world-wide disproportion between prices of raw materials and manufactured goods is calling for —and forcing —reductions in manufacturing and handling costs. Wage-rates are falling, sea freights have -been reduced, and a general renewal of that equilibrium between the values of various classes of goods which is essential to healthy trading-conditions will, it is considered, be reached by a better demand and somewhat improved prices for raw materials on the one hand, and a reduction of processing and handling costs on the other. In so far as New Zealand is able to condition internally the economic position of the country resultant from external factors, it certainly seems proper that every effort should be made to reduce production and manufacturing costs. The remarkable natural advantages of the Dominion, backed by the confidence and courage of its people, will, it is believed, put as brief a limit on the present depression as can be expected in the face of disturbed conditions in the financial and trading markets of the world.

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