LOST MARKETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 266, 10 November 1938, Page 5

LOST MARKETS.

BRITAIN SUFFERS. EFFECTS ON DOMINION. CONTRACTION IN TRADE. That the loss of the markets for British textile* in China. (Icrmany and I nited States had an indirect effect on Xew Zea la nd ivs> the opinion expressed liy Mr. \\ . U. Fortune in an address to the Auckland Creditmen's Club at its luncheon in Milne and Chovcc's reception hall yesterday. lie ;ave impressions of his recent tour abroad.

"Britain cannot get back her lost markets. he said, "ami there are no alternative markets at the present time to take their place. The manufacturers who installed new machinery in the mills of Lancashire to-day have those machines standing idle and their capital tied up. They arc most seriously affected by the contraction in British trade.'' Armaments activity bad been only partially effective iu maintaining the prosperity of Britain, and also of the I "nited States, stated Mr. Fortune. The industrial outlook was therefore patch}*. Britain's Production. Kfforts which had been made to extend the sales of Xew Zealand exports in the north of Kngland would require an expanding market, he continued, but under present conditions the market, in-lead of expanding', showed a tendency to contract. Besides this there was a strong feeling among the farmers and some other groups in Britain that greater encouragement should be given to agriculture. New land was being brought, into cultivation, and methods were being modernised. This, however, was so far only a restricted tendency, and its pr<!gress was retarded by the traditional coii«-ervatism of rural Kngla nd. I n view of the uncertainty of the future, and. in New Zealand's ease, the need of an expanding trade to maintain the present level of expenditure. Mr. Fortune said there was a sensitiveness in Kngland when the Dominion's credit was discussed. The people at Home were not deprecating the high ideals of Mr. Savages (iovernment. but the opinion generally expressed was that the old, well-tried principles and rules Mill applied, and that a country so dependent on overseas markets and with such a large overseas debt could not afford to be over-ambit ions.