NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19736, 8 September 1927, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRITAIN'S OVERSEAS TRADE. A mass of statistical information regarding British overseas trade %vas recently presented to the House of Commons by the President of the Board of Trade. "A consideration of these returns shows how thoroughly unsatisfactory is the present tendency," the Times observed. "Imports show a steady tendency to rise, while exports remain some 25 per cent, below the standard before the war, and the result is seen in the apparent adverse balance. In the first half of 1913 the apparent adverse balance amounted to 78.4 million., pounds sterling; in the same period in 1924 it was 122.5 millions; in 1925. 206.2 millions; and in 1927, 209.5 millions. The Board of Trade has always been reluctant to admit that when allow ance has been made for what are known as 'invisible' exports—in the form of in terest on foreign investments, freights, commissions of various kinds, and so on—there has been an actual as distinct from an apparent adverse balance on our oversea trade. The City, too, was never convinced that the final estimates issued by the Board of Trade for 1924 represented the actual position; and the board subse quently revised its estimates of the invisible exports, and on the new basis was able to show that until the end of 1925 there was still a small margin on the right side. Last year it was at last ad mitted officially that the final margin was adverse, though the result in this case was attributed to the industrial troubles. How serious the position would become if an adverse balance were to become a regular feature of our foreign trade it is scarcely necessary to explain. Unless there were a margin available for investment abroad it would be useless for foreign nations to turn to this country for loans which, generally speaking, are taken in the form of goods, and the effect on British export trade would bo disastrous.'' MARKETS liN THE EMPIRE. " In general it is unfortunately true that our share of the world's exports of manufactured goods has shrunk from 28 per cent, in 1913 to 25 per cent, in 1925," the Times stated. "It the present depression were merely due to the normal ebb and flow of the world's trade there would be little cause for anxiety, but in face of the official statistics it is quite impossible to attribute- it to temporary causes. Its roots are deeper than that, and nothing but vigorous measures will restore prosperity. Clearly the best remedy for excessive imports is greater production at home—accompanied by the exercise of a voluntary preference'for the purchase of British goods as the best stimulus to that end. The increase of exports resolves itself into findjng markets overseas. One result of the war has been the impoverishment of what were some of our best markets abroad, but against that loss must be set the increasing power of the Empire to absorb the exports of this country. The proportion of our trade with the Empire has risen from 37 per cent, in 1913 to 39 in 1925, and to 43 per cent, so far this year. These results amply justify the steps that are being taken to promote the welfare and development of the Empire overseas, since the increase of its wealth and population has an immediate reaction in a greater demand for such goods as this country is able to supply. But, while the Government can adopt a sound policy in regard to the encouragement of trade within the Empire, everything depends in the last resort on the initiative and enterprise of the individual. Trade throughout the world is passing through a transition stage. Conditions to-day are entirely different from those which existed in the last century, and the competition of eager rivals makes it vital that our traders should not lag behind, either in organisation or in the adoption of modern methods to secure the markets of tho world. THE UPWARD PATH. "All the things worth while arc built up from small beginnings, incomplete and unsatisfying in themselves, but leading in due course and with due effort to tin greater whole," says a writer in the Times. "Inches become ells almost uutomatically in one direction only by dint of toil and tears in tho other. It is a commonplace in the jivorld of Nature. Th tilled field, untended, reverts rapidly to desert or jungle. By no chance do desert and jungle ever becomo tilth without the sweat of some man's brow. The Roman poet saw man's lot as that of one labori ously rowing against' the stream; any relaxation of the straining arms, and he is swept headlong down the current. No where is this fatal tendency of things to go backward rather than forward, down rather than up, more clearly seen than in tho haphazardous realm of habit. The bad habit into which we slip almost un consciously fixes itself about our necks as firmly as any old man of the sea. The good habit, the offspring of struggles and hesitations, of small advances quickly lost, of fresh starts and false starts,'of regrets. repentance, and renewed resolve, holds its seat only at the cost of eternal vigilance. It all seems rather unfair to the natural man. Why should weeds grow so much more easily than wheat ? YVh should the bad habit form itself, while the good habit only comes of painful prac tice, and unremitting effort ? Why, in short, is good difficult and evil easy ? Tho man who could answer that question fully and finally would have, road the riddle of the universe. In the meantime, by an instinct of values common to all men, however pitiful their individual pedestrian performance, tho harder path presents itself definitely as an ascent. It is surely not for nothing that tho human spirit is 'upward tending . although weak.'- "