SMALL BUSINESS

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 254, 22 September 1930, Page 7

SMALL BUSINESS

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE.

AUSTRALIAN INVESTMENTS.

MORE HOPEFUL VIEW TAKEN. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 22, 10.5 a.in. LONDON, Sept. 21. Australia’s financial position continues to receive much attention from the newspapers, and writers generally, while recognising the seriousness of the situation, are inclined to take a somewhat more hopeful view of the future. The level to which the Australian Government stocks has fallen is causing some anxiety, but as far as can bo ascertained there is no disposition on the part of large holders to part with their stocks at the present prices. The only sellers appear to be small holders who, as mentioned a fortnight ago, have taken alarm at some extremist talk in Australia.

The present certainly seems a good opportunity for investment in Australian stocks, for all of them show an excellent yield. The Stock Exchange generally has relapsed into a condition of lifelessness, which is very disappointing after the briskness which characterised the beginning of the month. Business is on the smallest scale, the public showing no interest, and professional buyers are marking time. Gilt-edged securities have been fairly steady, with the exception of Australians, but foreign bonds have been weak, German bonds leading the decline, as a natural sequence of the election results. Industrial stocks have been quieter than for some weeks past.

“TRUTH ABOUT AUSTRALIA.”

LONDON PRESS COMMENT

LONDON, Sept. 20. To-day’s issue of the Daily Mail has an editorial entitled: “The Truth about Australia. What she did for the Empire.” The paper declares: “Here is a continent whose inevitable development will amply repay whatever money is diverted thereto. What are our bankers thinking of ? Australia, who fought for the Empire tiger-like, presents herself at their counters. They examine her requests for assistance with a microscope, yet make loans to enemy countries with open hearts and purses. “Just let us remember what Australia did in the greatest crisis the Empire ever faced. The debt is not repayable in cash. If every financial obligation were cancelled, we in Britain would still owe our Australian kinsmen a perpetuity of gratitude and admiration for the war. The British public simply will not stand having Australia’s problems assessed in cold terms of pounds, shillings and pence.” VISIT OF EXPERT. BANK OF ENGLAND’S SUGGESTION. SYDNEY, Sept. 21. In the course of a speech lie delivered at Condobolin last evening, Mr A. Blakeley, Minister for Home Affairs, denied that Sir Otto Niemeyer came to Australia at the invitation of the Commonwealth Government. The fact was the Bank of England suggested to the Government that it should send a representative here with a view to taking over the overdraft of the Commonwealth Bank and the Westminster Bank, London. Mr Blakeley added that Labour had not and would not endorse Sir Otto Niemeyer’s proposals to reduce the standard of living in Australia to that of England with its two millions of unemployed. Mr J. A. Beasley, Assistant Minister of Industries, made a similar declaration at Queanbeyan, and added: “Financial interests abroad do not desire that secondary industries in Australia should be developed. They desire that Australia should remain merely a Crown colony, producing raw materials for manufacturers abroad. Labour is certainly not going to allow that.”