MONEY AND INDUSTRY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 24 April 1913, Page 4

MONEY AND INDUSTRY.

There are two or three common-sense points which will, perhaps, have occurred to a good many of those who have read the address reported .in Wednesday's Star as having been made by the Chairman of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce at that body's annual meeting. No doubt there are various reasons why money has latterly been scarce, such as the use of enormous sums in non-productive Old World wars, the equally non-produc-tive hoardings of India, and the phenomenal industrial developments of South America. These things must make it difficult to obtain capital from outside to add to the capital of colonial monetary institutions; out this condition is not likely to last, and even were it to last longer .than some may be inclined to expect, it' should be remembered, that almost all the local capital out on loan is employed in industry which creates marketable con:rrodities, ami that ih^so, in tl.oir

turn, bring to the country new capital, which becomes available for the expansion of existing industries or the creation of new ones. Hence, though the Old World may continue for a time to have little money to lend, it will always be found ,to have much to spend for the commodities which it needs, and by producing more and more of these a country like New Zealand may be said to have her financial salvation in her own hands.' It is true that, to accomplish this, she needs the assistance of capital, and if this is scarce or dear, the process is of course proportionately more difficult, let better prices as well as increased production are factoi-s in the process, and perhaps these operated extensively last year, for instance, in enabling the country to get £1,500,000 more for its wool than in the previous year, £350,----000 more for its frozen mutton, £'500,- ---| 000 for its cheese, £250,000 more for its butter, and noteworthy increases also in hemp, tallow and frozen lamb. Of course, ia proportion as these increases place those who secure them in improved financial positions, industry stands to gain, and a continuance of good prices cannot fee otherwise than desirable in the country whose produce brings them; but as prices change, the real .remedy must be looked for in more production. Every banking institution knows this, and no doubt all the Dominion's banking institutions will, individually and collectively, do their utmost to promote further production for export, and also all sound trade and industrial enterprise within the Dominion itself. , Looked at in the light of considerations like these, the present comparative financial stringency need cause no serious misgivings with respect to trade and industry in this country, though it will necessarily be seriously inconvenient to those who, were money plentiful and cheap, could expand and prosper more than they can while it is scarce and dear.