SEASON OF HOPE

Evening Star, Issue 21820, 8 September 1934, Page 9

SEASON OF HOPE

DRAPERY TRADE PROSPECTS Retail business in the drapery, clothing, and boot trades this spring and summer is hopefully viewed by the New Zealand trade organ, the ‘ Draper.’ This journal realises that for 1934-35 there aro_“ good and substantial reasons for anticipating a real movement towards a much-desired recovery in business, and solid grounds for viewing the advent of spring-time with renewed confidence.

“ Disturbing factors in the smooth running of the machinery of trade, such as tariff schedules and the bank rate of exchange on London, are again becoming stabilised and static, so that forward buying is no longer a hazardous problem to be tackled with serious misgivings and risks of loss. “ For good or ill the exchange rate has been fixed by the Reserve Bank at current rates, with no change to be anticipated for some time ahead, and then only when London prices for our staple exports have recovered sufficiently t to give our farmers a profitable return for produce now being sold at a loss. The new tariff rates are also practically finalised, and the details of changes indicate no violent alterations in the Customs duties, or such as might call for an extensive revaluing of cuiwent stocks.”

Satisfaction is expressed at the New Zealand tariff changes in favour of imports from Great Britain, and reference is made with satisfaction to the dominion external trade, also the Budget. Although the surplus is small it is none the less welcome. “ It is true the only reduction in taxation, apart from minor tariff ones, is 2d in the £ from the unemployment tax, but the partial restoration of the cuts in the wages of our numerous public servants and the _ old age pensions is a move in tlie right direction which has long been awaited. It denotes, we trust, the end of the deflation policy which had such a disastrous effect on the purchasing power of the people. . . . “The lead given by the Government towards restoring wages to normal is one we may well expect to find followed by our numerous local bodies, and it is sincerely to bo hoped that public and private employers and companies in a position to do so will follow suit, so that an approach to the former

established standards of living may be made possible. Too much in this direction cannot be expected at once, but every such movement is a turn towards the restoration of prosperity, and the accumulative effect of many even small efforts will mean much in speeding-up recovery.” After reference to the coming Royal visit to New Zealand the ‘ Draper ’ concludes: “ The cheerful -way in which' things are heading now gives us every hope that by the time our distinguished guest arrives in December we will all be in the cheerful and happy mood to offer him the right royal reception he anticipates from those accorded his predecessors, and we can again demonstrate our unfailing loyalty to the Throne and the Mother Country in our usual hearty fashion.”