A SUCCESSFUL YEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 232, 1 October 1925, Page 9

A SUCCESSFUL YEAR.

EXPORTS OF 54 MILLIONS.! EffPOKTS RATHER HEAVY. ENCOCILAGE OUE MANTTACTUHES. , "it is highly gratifying that during the past year we have experienced a most successful season ior our staple products. ! wooL butter, and cheese." said Mr. ' Albert Spencer, president of the Auck- I land Provincial Employers' Association. ' st the twenty-fourth annual meeting' to-day. I "Our exports for the year have reached I over £-54J?(Xi.iJ00." he" continued, but I added a note «i warning that our imports ! had been iar too high for the financial j safety of the country. A "go-slow"- j policy by importers, merchants, and Others in the face of this might be a I national advantage. I _ Develop the secondary industries of the country, advised Mr." Spencer. "Not- | withstanding their growth and increasing \ importance during the year they might j be vastly increased and fostered" for the . benefit of the whole conununitv. This country cannot come to full prosperity j unies; her secondary industries' are fully j developed, anc the most sensible way to ; bring this about is to urge and educate i the people to buy New Zealand-made goods. At the present time there art ' iar too many manufactured goods imported into New Zealand, and a very j large proportion of these imports consists oi loreign goods, much to the detriment 01 Great Britain and this countrr. A large quantity of these could with profct be manufactured here, givmsr work to ' thousands of our young people, besides Keeping tne money in o _r own country for further development."

England's Unsettled State. A valuable review -eras then made by the president of his impressions of industrial conditions during his recent 15----month?' tour abroad. In England he found industry in a i somewhat parlous state, with a "heaw burden of unemployment and a determined effort by foreign rivak to outbid - the British industries. A number of i manufacturing nrms had only averted the i need o: closing down by establishing factories in Spam. Beinrium. Switzerland. and_ France, where wage? and working conditions gave them a chance of meeting foreign competitors. Meanwhile. \ve | were not mucn affected by competition; and Br;tain. taking about'9s per cent oi j our primary products, at prices that gave good profits to our producers, was for us , a splendid customer. But industrial con- j ditions in Great Britain must sooner or later show their effects in this country. -England has been loaded up to the last ounce of endurance by the heaviest taxation of any country in the world."j warned Mr. spencer. The coal trade had; fallen into a shocking- state: increased coal production o: France had' introduced a dangerous competition in, markets ia which England's trade had: been formerly almost "unchallenged. On top o: this the uses for t-oal were beinc' lessened through oil fuel. "Tne result of I mc Dawes scheme of German reparation! payments is shown by a decrease isj British coal exports of no less than! 27.767.000 tons, and British trade in: erportin<: coal is doomed." The iron and steel trade, the ship-' building trade and the Staffordshire pot-l teries were all suffering from fierce' foreign competition.

Rise of the Foreigner. "A: one time Great Britain manufactured for all the world." he said in speaking of lormer British supremacy in many markets. "Now India. China and Japan. to say iKithinE of European countries, are manufacturing their own goods, and exporting their surplus to England and' the colonies. People do not realise that 1 the whole of the East is waking up."! Great Britain, the home of cotton! spinning, was losing her leadership; she! was to-day supplying cotton spinning! machinery, instead of cotton goods., to; many of ber okt customers. In Japan. China, India, and Brazil tbe cotton' spindles now running had. increased iroi— ! 10 million in 191". to lb million in' 1924. and power looms from 120,000 toi 200.000. Tbe steel industry in these' countries, with tbe exception of Japan.' had risen t-ery rapidly from 560.000 tons' to 85Q.G00 tons. •"I believe." Mr. remarked.! •'the time will come when free trade' must go. and a tariff -wall raised as-ainst the foreigner, always granting prefer-' cnoe m Empire productions. British shir*-! pimg ha? been especially affected in trad-' ing to foreign countries by the foreign Governments granting special orivilesres to national enterprises, together with : restrictions imposed on British shipping corn Dailies, wbo par double the wanes to their employees."