UPWARD TREND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 85, 11 April 1931, Page 9

UPWARD TREND.

BRITISH INDUSTRY. Minister's Optimistic View of Trade Position. ROOK-BOTTOM REACHED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, April 10. The President of the Board of Trade, Mr. William Graham, in a speech said there were now signs of a trade improvement in many directions. Many authorities believed that commodity prices had reached the lowest figure. iIn consequence of the provisional settlement in India, the conditions of the Lancashire cotton industry are definitely brighter. He trusted that an effective arrangement would be made which would absorb considerable quantities of Lancashire cotton ■ goods now in the Indian market. In due course the pithead regulations of output under the Coal Mines Act would improve pithead prices.. With regard to iron and steel, he admitted that grave difficulties confronted the industry, but he believed that much more could be done by a drastic reorganisation of the industry, chiefly for the purpose of getting rid of weak redundant knits rather than by tariffs, Wirich would adversely affect innumerable intermediate industries.

A sound scheme appeared to be regional reorganisation, in which, for example, iron and steel manufacturers in Scotland would for all practical purposes become one unit. Referring to the Government having insured the construction and marine risks of the giant Cunarder now being built on the Clyde by John Brown, Ltd., Mr. Graham saicl the Government was willing to provide for the insurance of the second Cunarder if and when the company decided to* proceed with its construction. .Taking all the circumstances into account he felt that they were now at the beginning of an upward movement in British industry and commerce.