WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 4 May 1931, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

. EXTENDING MARKETS. „ (Special' Correspondent). .WELLINGTON, May 1., At various times suggestions have s been made that, something should be done to find new markets tor New Zealand ’export'products. '1 he; Eastern, mat Lets have.been spoken ot and not so very long ago. this was 'very strongly nrgpd upon Government. But the East just now is as hardly pressed as any other part,of the.world. The price recessions in rubber, copper, jute and tea, together vyitli 4he drastic fall in the price of silver .which is the base metal currency, of the East, has impoverished the people so that at present t-Kere is very little prospect of .developing a market in the East. •} ■ihe United States, Cpnada, Australia and the Continent of Europe nave banged their doors against us for their tariffs' are more or less prohibitive. After all is said on the subject the United Kingdom is about ofir only open i and reliable market which may offer greater fatalities when the Conservative again fsecnrp the reins of Government, which cannot now be very long. In the meanwhile most of our produce is sent to Loudon, and apart from wool our principal exports are butter, cheese and' frozen meat, which can he handled in London. For many years our exporter* have urged shipments to the North of'Knelfthd,, and'»omo ablp» meats have heap sent there> Quite recently the Chairman of the Ship Canal Company stated that tho New ; Zealand Dairy Pro* duce Board had advised the Canal Company that a steamer was about to leave New Zealand direct for Manchester, ; and the chairman expressed the hope that distributors and buyers in the district would encourage further shipments, by supporting the selling of the consignment. This was said early in Match. Mr Faulkner, of Manchester, ip a letter, to tl.e “Manchester Guardian,” on.the, subject asks: “Why ; not makpthe wish a positive fact?” In a recent tour through Australia and New Zealand, he said, inaivjc big organisations which he visited expressed a wish to ship direct to' the North, but vepre afraid to do so,' either because the merchants of Tooley Street, London, threatened to boycott them if they did, or because the merchants of \ : Manchester' did not appear to want to encourage direct trade to the city. . Mostly it was because of the attitude of the London merchants. Since he had returned to England he had waited up on representatives of the Empire Marketing Board, only to be told that the Board experimented with one shipment from Australia to Manchester, but after being in store for a considerable time’, it had to be taken to London ns It was impossible to sell it in Manchester owing to the .attitude of Tooley Street merchants, Toole.v Street is blamed for a good deal, but it must be remembered that the merchants of that street have play. ■ no small part in developing both'the dairying und meat trades, of New Zealand and Australia.' The dairy industry in particular is very much indebted to Tooley Street for, financial assistance in the past, and. no doubt vested interests have developed which are now difficult to overcome... The outlook for commodity markets was promising and great hopes were entertained that during the next few months there would be convincing evi-f dence that the downward trend of values would be arrested, but more recent events render that problematical. The New York Stock Exchange has staged another of those spectacular crises the repercussions of which have yet to be felt. We are told that millions of dollars have been lopped off the values of listed stocks, and many of the leading stocks and gambling eount- , ers of the professional operators have come down to new low levels. This is bound to have far-reaching effects just like the crisis of 1929. The American j are bpund to draw upon whatever cred- | its they hold in Europe and elsewhere, and this is bound to disturb the exchanges, and the Stock Exchanges in London, Paris ■ad Berlin and there is hound to be a reaction on the commodity markets. It is perhaps signilicnnt that such important industrial metals such ns zinc and tin should have regisered low records. It is to ;be hoped that nothing serious will happen, but judging by the past the hope is a vain one. Hotvever, the next few weeks should see the position clarified and we will know where we stands