COMMERCIAL.

Evening Star, Issue 16908, 4 December 1918, Page 7

COMMERCIAL.

I Tho Customs revenue collected during November throughout tho Dominion ; amounted to £175,309, and the excise beer i duty to £14,590. Tho figures for Noveml borl 1917, were £281,956 and £21,860 respectively. > GERMAN INTERESTS IN AMERICA. Considerable satisfaction was. expressed > at the American official news that tho ■ German woollen mills at Passaic, N.J-, . and other large textile concerns in tho • S United States, aggregating 40 millions ster- ; | hug. are to be sold by' the Alien Property | Custodian to Americans before the end of j the vear. Those concerns were controlled j by the Custodian soon after America came ■ into tho wav; and it was through information connecting soma of the Passaic . (mills with German schemes to obtain wool ■ j from Australia, the Cape, and other Bri- : | tish Dominion.-; that all privately-bought, I unshipped wools in the Commonwealth were ordered into appraisement in June last. IVliat is felt in connection with this “Government policy to wipe out all ‘outposts of KiUtnr’ in the United States” is that it will extinguish one of tho biggest German groups operating outside Germany, and confine German wool and woolI ieu interests to Germany till it can set up ! something in their place in neutral conn* ( tries. Tho £t£i> will, at any rate, prevent : Germans trading as Americans; and stop j them making a profit under the American ' flag. It will also enable wool growing | countries liko Australia, New Zealand, and i South Africa to sell and ship freely to i America, knowing full well that it will he ; for American consumption and profit—not Gorman. This is important till at least the textile industry of Belgium, oi France, I and of Poland are restored to something | liko pro-war conditions. | THE WAY IN AUSTRALIA. I “Have faith in your country”—“Buy branded goods and see that the brand is I Australian.”—Hugo signs bearing those j most fitting injunctions to Australians wore j displayed at the National Economy Exhibi--1 tion, held at the Sydney Town Hall rej cently. Tho floor space in the hall and | basement was covered with numerous disI plays, which formed a practical testimony jto the worth of Australian goods. Besides ; showing articles with which we are already ; fand liar, the exhibition had many exhibits I arranged to show the expauson of Aus- ‘ Dalian industry during war time, and several displays indicated tho lines on which new industries may develop. There was an interesting example of South Australian effort, in the, dvo industry, and the j use of dyes lately discovered as applied jto textiles. The objects of the exhibition j were to encourage economy, efficiency, and 1 increased production. j QUEENSLAND COTTON. | Tho Queensland cotton industry is slowly ! developing, and those who have tried it i during tho past three years find it the most profitable of any crop grown. Bur- ! ing the past four years, an annuallv-in- ! creasing area, small though it is, has Wen (sown. Cotton, in fact, is the only crop I which has given increasing and satisfactory 1 returns, duo to tho world demand and | prices obtainable. J COMMERCIAL JAPAN. j Prim- to the war Japan imported electric ! lamps of the annual value of £30,000. j Groat efforts were then made to provide ; for all local requirements, and so much | progress was mafic that (luring the year i 1916 the* country was able to export lamps io tho value of £67.000. In 1917 the value of exported lamps was estimated at no less than £250,000. It will bo seen, therefore, that Japan is not only meeting tho demands of her own country, but has developed a. good export trade as well. Largo I modem factories have been erected during j the past throe- or four years, and the busij ness is developing in a very satisfactory j way.