OUR BEST CUSTOMER

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1925, Page 13

OUR BEST CUSTOMER

MORE TRADE WITH BRITAIN

DOMINION-RAISED LOANS FAV-. OURED. (EI TELEGKArH.—SPECIAL TO THE POStO DTJNEDIN, This Day. At the annual meeting of fJie Perpetual Trustees, Executors, and AgencyCompany Sir George Fenwick said :— "I find myself fully in accord with the action of the Chamber of Commerce in its recommendation to importers and traders to exerciso caution in respect to forward commitments, more particularly as regards imports and especially to indents for luxury goods. I would also stress the necessity for placing as much business as possible with British manufacturersj recognising that wo have in Great Britain our best customer for our main exports. It is certainly not comforting to find that, having increased the value o£ our exports from £26,000,000 in 192-1 to almost £55,000,000 in 1925 (mostly through enhanced prices and only partly through. " increased production), our trade balance will not suffice to cover our annual liability for overseas interests. It is true that from time to time the sum total of our yearly imports includes goods bought and paid lor out of loans raised in Great Britain, but I think this serves to emphasise the I point, viz., that loans when required should more often be raised within the Doraiuion, Such course, if adopted when-' over practicable, would serve tho double purpose •of lending to reduce our imports and enable us to retain in tho Dominion the interest payable on such loans instead of sending it abroad Tho remedy would appear "to bo of a twofold nature, firstly, reduction in volume of our imports; and, secondly, an allround increase in our production and exportation.