LONDON MONEY MARKET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18222, 16 October 1922, Page 8

LONDON MONEY MARKET

DOMINION'S HIGH REPUTE.

BRITISH TRADE CONDITIONS.

" New Zealand is undoubtedly held in the highest repute on the Londoa money market and by private investor/ said Mr. Eliot Davis, speaking from hia experience in financial circles in London. Mr. Masßey had played a large part in bringing about this happy state of affairs and a higher compliment to the Government could not have been paid than that the last New Zealand loan of £5,000,000 at 5 per cent., issued at par, was doubly subscribed, while other colonial issues, offered at the same time and on better terms to the investor, were not isuccessful. Mr. Davis was in England for 18 months and during; that time «*»«*•» freat improvement in matters relating to nance, industry, trade and employment. Britain was in the trough pf the depression when he arrived, the hf™™™ coal strike was proceeding, and names were on the unemployment register. Coal was undoubtedly the foundation upon which the British economic fabric was built, and the settlement of the stnke and the increased production of coal at lower prices which followed, seemed to have quickened the whole industrial^machine. Conditions were not normal yet, bub unemployment was decreasing, manufactories reopening, and blast furnaces relighted, some of them after two years' idleness. Financially, conditions had shown a remarkable change during his stay in England. The bank rate had been graded down from 7 to 3 per cent.,. and money had become very plentiful indeed. Its very abundance showed, however, that all was not right with Britain's trade and a less easy position would follow on an increased demand for financing exports und imports, and the many inter-related parts of the economic machine. Taxation was still a heavy burden a*id while be was in London many ancestral homes, which had remained with one family for centuries, were sold under pressure of taxation. New Zealand .products were everywhere well spoken of, the Dominion's butter being especially favourably regarded. With regard to frozen meat, Argentina was certainly at a great advantage in being able to put the chilled artusio on the market. But conditions had only to go on- lmproving in Great Britain to produce an unendine demand for all the produce New Zealand could send.