PROSPEROUS CONDITIONS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 1 June 1914, Page 4

PROSPEROUS CONDITIONS

CHAMBER, OF COMMERCE REVIEW.

At the quarterly meeting of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, the president (Mr E. G. Staveley) said, as reported in a Press Association telegram: "Speaking generally, the conditions are prosperous. Money for investment is fairly plentiful, " and moderate sums are obtainable on first mortgage at 5i per cent. Retailers state that they have some difficulty in obtaining payment of their accounts. Probably this is due more to expenditure on luxuries (such .as mptors and picture shows) than inability to pay by their customers. Farmers have had, and are having, remunerative prices for their fat stock, lambs especially being at record values. The export of frozen meat from the Dominion for the four months ■' to April 30th is in advance of last year, the figures stated being: 1913. sheep 871,777, lambs 1,801,438; 1914, sheep 1,236,998, lambs 1,719,924; increase in sheep 365,219, and in lambs 218,486. The 'grain returns are not &o satisfactory to the farmer, in either yield or valued and the production of wheat is diminishing. This is largely owing to the scarcity and increased cost of efficient labor. Land values remain firm, and there is a marked desire on the farmer's part to quit agricultural holdings in favor of sheep grazing properties. With the extended markets opening for our produce in Canada, United States^, and shortly, I anticipate, in Europe also, I see no reason to suppose, unless some grave national calamity occurs, that our prices here will decline, but that they are more likely to advance further -in future, and that we have still more prosperous times ahead." A