TRADE STATISTICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18584, 10 December 1920, Page 4

TRADE STATISTICS.

The decision of the Australian High Court that Customs duties must be kvied oa the basis of current exchange parity-will be welcomed by all who dc- , siye io see national statistics placed upon a reliable basis. So far as the ' basis of computation for Customs duties . has been a matter of rerenue, the question of adopting pre-war or current f»t*3 of currency exchange has been

primarily an issue between importers and the State, hut from the standpoint of th© student of statistics it has meant all the difference between an irrational and a rational basis for computing the value of a country's trade. In New Zealand, up to the end of Juno last, the Customs Department adopted the • expedient of taking pre-war or current rates of exchange according to which would realiso most revenue. At the end of June last there was a complete reversal of this policy, the Department being ordered to adopt the basis of exchange, pre-war or current, which would produce least revenue. While we approved the New Zealand innovation, on the general prinoiple that anything which tends to reduce the cost of living ia commendable, we must confess that the decision of the Australian High Court, as a matter of equity between the importer and the State, and as a matter of correctly recording the value of import trade,, is a commonsense pronouncement, and that we are not aware of any sound basis upon

which it could be attached. It is unfortunate that purely arbitrary methods of assessing values should bo used 'for the dual purpose of collecting Customs

revenue and recording the value of a country's trade, and we would suggest to the Statistical Department that its trade statistics from 1914 onwards

should be correlated with foreign exchange parities, and that supplementary tigurcs should be provided on this basis. Up to the end of June last the student of statistics, provided, ho be well equipped with exchange quotations during the war and post-war periods, can arrive at an approximation ou his own account, but under the dual or optional system adopted in the last five months this would be very" difficult. The Statistical Department rnny also be reminded that there lias been no pronouncement concerning the basis on which values of export* to , foreign countries are recorded. We do not know whether these are based on prewar or current exchange rates, and in View of the very wide fluctuations in exchange it is highly desirable that some standard of correction should be afforded. Iu these days, when trade statistics are being used in such highlyimportant controversies as that which relates wages' and bonuses, it is essential that we should know the true meaning of the figures published under official auspices.