CREDITS IN ADVANCE

Evening Star, Issue 23322, 19 July 1939, Page 3

CREDITS IN ADVANCE

IMPORT RESTRICTION DEVELOPMENT A SERIOUS COMPLICATION [Pkr United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 18. Notification of a new and serious development resulting from the import restrictions was received by an Auckland firm to-day from the agents for a British firm of felt and paint manufacturers. It was that no orders on hand or to be made in the future would be shipped until advice was received that sterling exchange could bo paid in London. ’ Explaining the effect of such a decision, the principal of the Auckland firm concerned stated that the goods imported were bituminous roofing felts and similar products which were imported into New Zealand at the rate of about £50,000 a year. They were constantly in use by builders, and were even necessary for the Government houses. At the present time they were not manufactured in New Zealand. His firm had obtained the necessary import licenses from the Customs Department. In the past the practice for payment was either on delivery in New Zealand or through the firm’s London buying house. Now, unless his own firm and others in the same line of business had credits of their own in London, goods could not be imported. It was not permissible to send money out of the country until the goods had arrived in New Zealand, continued the principal, so that no credits could be sent in advance from New Zealand, and since the English firm would not export until sterling exchange was available in London the position was a stalemate.