CONFIDENCE IN N.Z. FINANCE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26199, 24 August 1950, Page 3

CONFIDENCE IN N.Z. FINANCE

INCREASE OVERSEAS NOTED •

IMPRESSIONS GAINED BY MR P. J. BYRNE

The great interest taken overseas in New Zealand’s General Election last year has now given way to a general feeling of confidence in New Zealand finance, according to Mr P. J. Byrne, a Christchurch public accountant, who returned recently from a six months’ visit to England and the Continent.

He found stockbrokers more interested in New Zealand and anxious to do business with it, Mr Byrne said. Overseas businessmen felt that, to the extent that they, were able, they would have a chance to sell what they manufactured on a freer market.

To a certain extent, Britain was returning to a war footing in her industry, said Mr Byrne. Large orders for war materials had been placed in Britain by the United States, and the filling of those orders should go a considerable way towards easing the dollar shortage. Mr Byrne spent some time in Britain studying farming taxation and factory incentive schemes. New Zealand farmers did not get anything like the reward for their farm produce that farmers in Britain did, Mr Byrne said. In Britain the farmer’s reward was more than 100 per cent, greater than in New Zealand. British farmers’ tax reliefs were more generous, and they were given every encouragement to produce more food. As farming was New Zealand’s main industry it seemed logical that primary production should be encouraged in New Zealand more than in England, added Mr Byrne.