OUR TRADE PROSPECTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 41, 18 February 1927, Page 6

OUR TRADE PROSPECTS.

The address delivered yesterday to the Chamber of Commerce, at its annual meeting, by the retiring president, Mr. F. H. Hellaby, deserves the careful consideration of his audience and of the general public. There may be room for considerable difference of opinion in regard to many of the topics discussed. But what was most impressive about Mr. Hellaby's remarks was the cheerful and hopeful spirit by which they were animated. Mr. Hellaby professes to be an optimist, and we agree with him that he is here on safe ground. One of the profoimdest remarks ever made about our attitude'toward life is that, if pessimism be true, it differs from all other truths in being absolutely useless. Mr. Hellaby did well to appeal to his hearers to repudiate the view of things that depresses and enervates and paralyses, and to look to the future with buoyant confidence, believing firmly that even if all things are not yet for the best in the best possible of worlds, it is our business to make them so.

It is true, as Mr. Hellaby admitted, that our international trade returns are not so satisfactory as they were—in fact, we have gone back to the extent of seven and a-half millions as compared with 1925. It is also true that values are still falling, for the world in general and New Zealand in particular have not yet recovered from the reaction following on the era of artificial prosperity that succeeded the war. But Mr. Hellaby sees ample compensation for all this in the increased productivity of the country, and the extension of the markets for our primarv products in Europe and America. At the same time, as all members of the great British family must recognise with satisfaction, Britain, in spite of internal dissensions and bitter economic strife, has apparently reached a turning-point in her fortunes, and is beginning to recover not only her ability to hold her own against her foreign rivals, but 'her capacity to purchase the goods that she cannot conveniently or profitably produce for herself from other portions of her Empire.

Most people will agree with Mr. Hellaby that we have in these things solid ground for confidence and optimism. We are not so sure that the more critical side of his address will be so warmly or generally endorsed. As regards immigration, we hold with Mr. Hellaby that the Government has been to blame in permitting or encouraging "the constant inflow of immigrants in a time of acute depression." The contention that wages generally are too high for many industries to bear would be . much more difficult to sustain, and we observe that Mr. Hellaby admits the force of the American arguments in favour of high wages as a direct encouragement to productivity and efficiency. As to the persistent and vexatious interference of the State with private enterprise, we think, with Mr. Hellaby, that there has been far too much of this in New Zealand in recent years, though the Government now in office is theoretically opposed to the principle and practice of State Socialism.