CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11049, 29 August 1896, Page 4

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Mr Gibes said nothing that was particularly new or especially startling to the members of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce at their annual meeting yesterday afternoon, but he managed in his presidential address to present a number of important facts in a very clear and interesting form.' It is satisfactory; too, to find that his comments upon these facts were, on the whole, of a distinctly encouraging tone. He alluded, it is true, to the appearance of “ a want of confidence in the future,” but this indication of an undefined sort of pessimism was preceded by an admission that trade was exceptionally sound, and followed by an assurance th&t the principal industries of this part of the colony, at any rate, were in a fairly flourishing condition. There can, however, be no doubt that the natural anxiety concerning the future—which exists at all times and in all places — is just now accentuated, so far as this colony is concerned, by the critical state of the markets for our staple products. Mr Gibbs had only to quote the decline in prices during the past decade, and to point to the great issues involved in the tariff war in the United States, to show two very good reasons why our producers and merchants should contemplate the developments of the next few months with a considerable amount of trepidation. But he did not stop at enumerating the difficulties and dangers of the situation. He offered some sound practical advice to the growers and exporters of frozen meat, for instance, which deserves the very earnest attention of everyone who wishes to maintain the volume and increase the value of our. exports. We are very glad to see that Mr Gibbs, who may be re-

garded as an expert on this particular question, shares our repeatedly % expressed opinion of the value of the Vancouver mail service. If the San • Francisco service were satisfactory from a postal point of view—• which it is not—it would still be open to the objection' that it makes our principal means of communication with the Mother Country entirely dependent upon the goodwill of a nation that has quite recently suffered from a rather acute attack of Anglophobia. There is ho prospect of Mr Ward’s proposal of last year being revived during the present session of Parliament, but we may reasonably hope that the Government will seize the first opportunity to re-open the negotiations for a Canadian service. Mr Gibbs was probably quite justified in concluding that the people of Canterbury would rather see the East and West poast Railway promptly com- • pleted by an arrangement with the. Midland Company than watch it* tardy extension by annual driblet* . from loan money. But, unfortunately, the people of Canterbury have not, as they were told in Parliament two years ago, a commanding voice in thb matter. They must wait for the completion of their railway system, just as the people of Auckland and the people of Otago are waiting for their*. It may be a tedious process, hut the united wisdom of the country has determined that it is the right thing to do, and the united wisdom of the country very properly prevails. There can, however, be no harm, and there may be some good, in occasionally reminding the colony at large that Canterbury has neither lost its faith : in the East and West Coast railway nor abandoned' its claim to a fair share in the expenditure of public money.