A BANKER'S OBSERVATIONS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15747, 14 November 1916, Page 5

A BANKER'S OBSERVATIONS.

FINANCE AND 1 THE WAR

CANADA'S WONDERFUL PROSPERITY. (press association* telegbasi.) AUCKLAND, November 13. Mr Harold Beauchamp, chairman of j directors of the Bank of New Zealand, I was a passenger by the Niagara after a five months' tour. Mr Beauchamp told an interviewer: —With a view to keeping down the rate of exchange against London, very large quantities of gold were recently transferred from Canada to New York. Canada has been the channel through which have come nearly half tho gold imports to the United States since the close of 1914. Since then not imports of gold into the United States have amounted to over £103,000,000. The gold which has lately been coming to Canada is understood to be the output of the South African mines. It is shipped to Canada and thence sent to tho United States, and these mines are said to be producing about £800,000 a week, and they are turning out enough in other works to provide a reservo in the United States against credits at the rate of something over £200,000,000 a year. Owing to the way in which gold is nccunnilating in New York bankers in that city have been unablo to find profitable employment for their funds in the United States, and recently have been looking to London for temporary investments. No doubt British Treasury bills yielding 5J per . cent, to 6 per cent, per annum, according to term, would prove tempting when the rate for call money to-day in New York is round about '2 J per cent, per annum, with small demand. Temporarily at least. New York as a money centre, has taken the place of London, but as the result of observations and conversations I had with leading bankers, I incline to the opinion that London will regain her principal supremacy within a measurable distance from the close of the war. Meanwhile, having regard to the won- | derful expansion in exports from the United States to Great Britain and other countries, one does not_ wonder at the amazing wealth of America, and of New York in particular. The particularly healthy financial, industrial, and. economic position of the Dominion of Canada was also the subject of interesting comment by Mr Beauchamp. "Owing," he said, "to the enormous orders placed in Canada by the British Government for munitions of war, added to high prices for all descriptions of produce, the country, especially on the eastern side of the continent is in a condition of amazing prosperity. For the twelve months ending May, 1916, Canada's trade grew by £100,000,000. This expansion was due to the increase in volume and in value of exports, for imports for the period under rerie.v exhibited a marked decline in value. The total value of exports and imports amounted to £312,446,000. The value of exports agp;regated £164.000,000. as against £86,400,000 in 1915, and £71,600,000 in 1913. Of exports £103,600,000 went to Great Britain, as compared with £36,000,000 for 1915, whilst the purchases of the United States increased from £33,400,000 in 1915 to £67,400,000 in 1916. There was also an increase in France's buying from £600,000 to £7,400.000. Imports dropped from £89,400,000, the year before the war, to £64.200,000, the chief decrease being in imports from England, which fell from £28,600,000 before the war to £17,200,000. Farther evidence of Canada's prosperity is reflected in tho July statement of the .chartered banks. Savings deposits, notwithstanding the drain of the domestic war loan last autumn, were £23,620.000 higher than at the end of July, 1914, and demand deposits were £17,020,000 greater. The aggregate deposits with the banks were £244,262,200, an increase of £40,625,000. while in the same period commercial loans contracted bv £20,030,000.