The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1936. DOMINION'S BUOYANT TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 174, 24 July 1936, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1936. DOMINION'S BUOYANT TRADE.

For the cause that lack.* assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance t For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

At this time of the year it is customary in New Zealand to take stock of the trade position.. The 1935-36 production season closed a few weeks ago, and another has begun, with promise of continued improvement provided farmers and the business community are not unduly harassed by cost raising and marketing control. External conditions are more favourable from a trade viewpoint than for a number of years, and the country needs only a reasonable immunity from disturbing internal tendencies to profit fully from the improving overseas demand for its products. Prices for the Dominion's major exports —wool, meat and dairy produce—have been restored to profitable levels, and are apparently on a firmer basis to-day than at any time since before the slump; the exports and imports are at the moment in a fairly balanced relationship following a period of violent year to year fluctuations; and the favourable margin is adequate to meet interest and other "invisible" commitments abroad. Thus an importsfnt stage has been reached in the march towards a new era of prosperity. Of course, it would be a mistake, in this time of continuous change, to regard the present balanced state of our trade as more than temporary. The probability, indeed, is that the margin between imports and exports will be steadily, and perhaps rapidly, narrowed, and that recourse will be had, in the near future, to the Dominion's reserves of sterling exchange, exceeding £45,000,000, in London.

It is fortunate that the country's trade is in a buoyant condition preparatory to the action of the Labour Government in putting its expensive ideas into practice, but the expansion has not yet gone far enough to justify some of the Government's more farreaching measures. The export total is still well below the figures "Of seven or eight years ago, if account be taken of the change in the value of the New Zealand pound, and the dependence of the Dominion on one market, Britain, is now greater than it was in the late 'twenties. The direction of our trade has been changing. Last year Britain took 83.6 per cent of our total exports, against 72 per cent in 1928, 73.7 per cent in 1929, and 80.17 per cent in 1930. On the other hand, Canada, With which the existing trade treaty has just been extended, 4 took only 1.4 per cent last year, compared with 6 per cent in 1929 and 5.65 per cent in 1930. Australia purchased 3.8 per cent of our exports last year, a much lower proportion than seven or eight years ago. Sales to Britain are now exceptionally high, the latest analysis showing that of £30,009,800 obtained from exports for the five months January to the end of May of this year £22,987,900 represented Britain's share. This contrasts with a figure of only £1,785,400 for all other British countries over the same period and a t-otal of £5,236,500 for all foreign countries. Thus it can be seen that New Zealand's prosperity is almost completely bound up with that of the Mother Country.