SCARCITY OF GOODS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 103, 25 January 1933, Page 9

SCARCITY OF GOODS

Raw Materials in Germany NOW REPLENISHING STOCK Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, Jan. 24. “Needs must when the devil drives,” said Mr. H. Tronser, overseas representative of the largest firm of agricultural implement-makers in Europe, today when asked how he accounted for the special activity of German operators at current wool sales. It was pointed out to Mr. Tronser that in view of the unsettled political and industrial situation in Germany, very little in the way of competitive buying was expected in New Zealand from German buyers. “That would appear to be so,” he said, “but the fact which you have overlooked is that we have done no buying for three years, and at present we are completely bare of stocks. Hamburg, Bremen and our great ports are starved for raw material, and German buyers simply had to secure all supplies they could at this season’s sales.”

It was not that they could afford it altogether, he said, but that there was a scarcity which had to be made up. That was why Germany bad been such an important factor in the maintenance of Continental competition at Australian and New Zealand auctions.