SYDNEY AND THE EAST.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 59, 29 June 1908, Page 7

SYDNEY AND THE EAST.

Mr William Baldwin, a well-known Sydney merchant, has come back from a tour of the East with the firm conviction that there is a great opening for Australian trade with that part of the world. "Capitalists and big merchants hero in Sydney aro sound asleep," he told a Sydney interviewer, "and their snores can be heard in Vladivostock. Nothing but the apathy of tho traders hero can possibly prevent Sydney becoming tho third greatest distributing centre in the whole world." He declares that the market is 25 per cent, better than London for the Sydney merchant. The hundreds of millions of people in the East produce little or no wool, meat, or flour, so the possibilities of trade are tremendous. Ono Sydney firm can supply biscuits as good as those which now come from England, and land them in tho East at half the freight from London. Jams and wines from Australia could easily supply the needs of tho East, at a price much lower than the English. For Australian butter —in spito of the development of the Siberian dairy industry—a splendid market is assured, and in Vladivostock itself he had tasted Sydney butter of as good quality as can bo ?;ot in Sydney. The markets there are ar more accessible to us than to any othe rcompetitor, yet we will not avail ourselves of them. We have the goods, and can deliver them at prices that easily defy European competition." According to Mr Baldwin, freights from Sydney may be roughly estimated at from 20 to 40 per cent, less than freights for similar merchandise shipped from London or New York to the East. The new line to Shanghai now in contemplation should enablo Australians to place their exports in the East at an average saving in cost of transportation of from 6 to 15 per cent., and in nearly every case with equal facilities for frequent and prompt delivery. At pre; sent, he says, the German trader is easil.v first, the Scotchman second, the American third, and the Englishman far behind. All four are sufferingirom the growing competition of the Chinaman, who acquires > Western knowledge and adapts it to his own use.