NOTES FROM GERMANY.

Evening Star, Issue 14162, 11 September 1909, Page 1

NOTES FROM GERMANY.

[From Our Continental Correspondent.] BERLIN, July 51. I TRAMWAYS IN GERMANY. ' The report, of the German Imperial Office of Statistics gives the following figures relating to tramways in the Fatherland. The total number of tramway undertakings (private, municipal, etc.) is 237, with a net of lines 5,850 kilometres in length and a capital of £46,000,000. Of the above 237 tramways 151 are solely for the transport of passengers, 4 solely for goods traffic, and the rest serve both purposes. Of 189 trams the source of locomotion is electricity, of 15 steam, of 8 wire ropes, of 22 horses. The revenue for the financial year closed June 30 totalled £9,935,000, the expenditure £6,320,000; the net revenue .was therefore about £5,600,000. LABOR BUREAUS IN GERMANY. In Prussia, the largest State of the Federated German Empire, the unemployment problem is being grappled with in a similar way as in New Zealand. The difference between the two systems is that in Prussia the municipal authorities administer the bureaus,. According to official statistics, the number of .bureaus in Prussia (which has 57,300,000 inhabitants) rose from 222 on January 1, 1908, to 254 on January 1, 1909. The work of the bureaus during 1908 was as follows; c 5 f* **r F c <3 O O f*\ c. O f Year. fa 3." <2 OS <( k 1908 996,600 606,772 459,705 1907 806,752 686,583 459,174 1906 755,255 671,926 463,413 1905 695,186 567,568 390,908 While, therefore, the numbers of applications for work show a very considerable increase during the year just passed, offers of employment have gone back. T»ie industrial and financial crisis that prevailed in Germany, and the consequent economic difficulties, are explanations for this. The following table, giving the numbers of applications suited in comparison to the number of inhabitants of the respective cities, will be found of interest: C aO in e City n. "5.-2 o a. - 3 £ crli " t ••• 2.105 M 234 88.767 Frankfort S/M. ... 580,000 37,622 f° Io g™ 453,060 25,755 Dnsseldorf 275,000 25.501 Magdeburg 241,000 16,090 £ ro f lau , 486,000 12,526 Dortmund 200,000 17,369 losen 150,000 17,474 EXPORT AND IMPORT DURING THE FIRST HALF-YEAR OF 1909. The German foreign trade for the first six months of 1909 snows a slow recovery a PP ar ;? rltl y. Imports increased from £197,850 000 to £206,250,000; exports a? 1 ? £166,350,000 to £161,050,000. Although this may be an increase on the preceding year, the figures are > a very long way behind 1907, for imports in 1908 were £46,300,000 less and exports £30,900,000 less than in the first half-year of 1907. These figures areau indication of the depression that reigned m Germany last year, and from which that country is only now on a slow road to recovery. In a short article, dated from Cologne in April of this year, I published in the Dunedin ‘ Evening Star’ some sttaenients, based on a British Consul’s report, about the agricultural progress in Germany. My statements are now borne out by the fact that if it had not been for Germany’s foreign trade in agricultural and pastoral products things would be in a most deplorable state now. Amongst the different groups in export and import these products are the only ones that show any increase against 1908, and make things m general appear better than they really are. The import of agricultural and pas-tm-al products in the first half-year of 1909 _ rose to £131,900,000, acainsf -•124,550,000 in 1908. Nearly all industrial groups show a decided decrease Similar conditions reign in the export trade, only agricultural and pastoral prodets showing an increase. Their export etc -> rose from fnnn 300 !? 00 m 1908 to £28,950,000 , in 1909. Export of raw materials (including iron and steel) declined from £26,350,000 to £25,000,000; machines, electrical apparatus, and machinery from seventeen millions to sixteen aud a-quarter millions • mineral and fossil raw products from £12,400,000 to £12,000,000,- toys, musical instruments, watches, firearms from three and a-half millions to three millions; glassware from four and a-half millions to four millions. In quantity, imports declined by 3,100,000 tons, principally through a. decrease in coal, stones, and similar articles. The quantity of the export is about the same as in the .corresponding period of last year. At present, indications point to an improvement, especially now, when the regulation of the Empire’s finances looks more assured.'