ENGLAND'S REVIVAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 148, 25 June 1934, Page 4

ENGLAND'S REVIVAL.

FOUNDED ON HEAVY INDUSTRIES. SUBSTANTIAL PROGEESS NOTED. (From a Correspondent.) We measure our financial conditions in New' Zealand chiefly by the prices obtained lor our primary products. The price we obtain is very largely dependent upon what England obtains for manufactured goods and services. There is no section of trade that reflects the prosperity or otherwise of England more than the so-called "heavy" industries. The latest returns from London relating to these arc more encouraging. In fact, the revival is more pronounced than ever the most sanguine could have forecast. Production in pig iron in March was 503,600 ton.", against a monthly average in VJS'.i of 340,000 tons, and of 032,400 tons in 1920. lln steel the tonnage for March was 829,700. The monthly average for 1933 was u53,000 tons, and for 1029 803,000 tons. The combined total for March was 1,333,500 tons, which is not far short of the record monthly average in 1929 of 1,435,400 tons.

These figures have a general significance in so far as they provide unmistakable evidence of the i*eal nature of the trade revival in England. The significance of the metal movement is realised when we remember that the increased output of iron and steel reflects expansion in shipbuilding, motor trade, building, factory equipment, as well as increased domestic and overseas demand for plant and machinery of many kinds, not the least among the laatnamed being larger machinery orders following the stimulus of goT3mining development due to the gold premium.

Factors largely contributing to the revival are tariff protection, the depreciated £ and the determination of manufacturers to adopt their products to suit buyers. Following the poet-war slump, the benefits of amalgamation, reorganisation and capital reconstruction, which subsequently took place, were prevented from materialising by the advent of the depression, but are now beginning to be reflected in profit and loss statements. Kevcrting to my original point that New Zealand is chiefly dependent upon the British market, there are very good grounds for believing that the trade revival in England will bring ,i definite benefit to the producers of this Dominion.