TRADE IN BRITAIN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 125, 26 April 1927, Page 7

TRADE IN BRITAIN.

FORGING STEADILY AHEAD. LONDON, April 23. According to latest statistics, trade in Britain is steadily forging ahead, many branches of industry becoming increasingly active. The Ministry Of Labour’s report on conditions in March says that while employment remained bad in some important industries, an improvement was recorded during the month in tailoring, pottery and ' earthenware manufacture, general and marine engineering, shipbuilding, public works construction, the cotten industry, and textile bleaching and dyeing. -■ There was a reduction in the numbers of those wholly unemployed in the • coal mines, but this, was more tham offset by an increase in the numbers of those temporarily unemployed. * ! /■' The apple market continues good, though of course with increasing supplies it has been impossible to maintain the very high prices obtained for the -first New Zealand arrivals.. The demand is satisfactory, many o"f the best West Australians . and New Zealands being bought for the Continent; home buyers are only supplying their immediate wants as they know that large quantities are coming along. In this connection some importers are questioning the wisdom of the action of the Empire Marketing Board in issuing statements to newspapers about big supplies. . This week the board circulated a statement that 140,000 cases from Australia and 43,000 from New Zealand would be arriving before the end of the qgonth. Big buyers of fruit already have this information in their possession, but smaller retailers become nervous when they read figures like these, and consumers point „to these • statements as reason why retail prices should belowered.. The Otranto brought the first parcel of the, new season’s dried fruits. The condition of the currants was good, and they are selling at between 43s and 525. The prospects are regarded as excellent, as supplies from other sources are very restricted. —A. and N.Z. cable.