Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1926. TRADE IN BRITAIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10672, 17 February 1926, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1926. TRADE IN BRITAIN.

The fact tliat speculative business on the London stock exchange waa decidedly dull last week is not to be regarded as indicating a set-back to the general improvement that has been noted in British trade and try of late. The investments that are affected are not of the class that form the basis of Britain's trade, though railways and textiles are mentioned as having felt the depressing' influence. A better gauge of the country's position is afforded by a statement of the chairman of Lloyd's Bank .to the effect that of £44,000,000 of loans to customers, covering 32 different industries, over £41,000,000 was for the purpose of financing extension of trade and only £2,800,00i0 for tiding individuals or firms over bad times or for covering trade losses. The quiet optimism that characterises almost all markets is evidently no mere rebound from the depression that obtained so long. It is based on a conservative expectation of better times in Britain. But the Motherland is by no means out of .the wood. The recent diminution in unemployment has done no more than cut down a fraction of the staggering total. Trade revival is far from complete. The coal crisis met by the subsidy has been postponed, not definitely averted. It is not the British way to magnify hopeful signs, but to scrutinise them —a fact that lends weight to the belief that this returning confidence is well based. Given freedom from industrial strife at home and from international strife on the Continent, there should be some progress toward prosperity in Britain this year. Britain's industrial and commercial recovery is of far-reaching importance, for when experienced it will react throughout the Empire. In Britain itself there is still obvious need for care, and from the Dominions, less handicapped than Britain by war's after-effects, the best ,help can be rendered by buying from Britain, not luxuries whose value is dissipated at one fell swoop, but necessaries capable of consumption in productive ways. Such buying does not subtract from purchasing-power'• in the long run, it multiplies "purchasing power. Following a wellknown economic law, there is every reason to anticipate thatprovided the threatened industrial upheaval does not materialise to push the country back even further than it has been—confidence will beget confidence and that a period of prosperity will be experienced. How long such a state of affairs! will last depends entirely upon how much the recent depression has impressed its lesson uphn the people. Recklessness in trade will endanger it, but thrift and productive expenditure will place it upon a sure foundation. That, also, is a truth that I should be Jbonie in' mind in this Dominion.