NEW ZEALAND PRODUCE

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11411, 6 January 1923, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND PRODUCE

PROSPECTS FOR NEW YEAR “MUCH BRIGHTER THAN THEY WERE LAST YEAR.” REVIEW OF POSITION. “The general outlook for tES farming community to-day is particularly good, as compared with the prospects at the beginning of last year,” stated a "Well-known Wellington' business man, who has his finger on, the pulse of New Zealand’s export trade, in the course of an interview with a “Times” representative yesterday. ■“Our farmers are now obtaining very satisfactory prices for their lamb, wool, and butter-fat; the price of mutton is better than it has been for some time past, and even the price of beef is slightly firmer; while the prospects for oereals and grass seeds—and, in fact, for everything that comes off the landare better than anyone at this time last year could reasonably have believed possible in so short a period. DESPITE MANY DRAWBACKS. “This, too, m spite of the unsettled conditions in Europe. England has still considerably over a million workers unemployed. France and Germany, it is true, are employing their people, but they cannot balance tbeir national budgets; Italy is in a state of great unrest, and the Near East is like a boiling cauldron, liable to boil over at any moment. The necessary consequence is that trade with these countries is very restricted. “In the Unted States, too, we have the Fordney-McCoomber tariff, with its severe restrictions on importations. But, despite this tariff, .America is buying fairly heavily New Zealand butter, and wool, tallow, Geeds, and other products, showing how short the Northern Hemisphere must be in. the main lines produced by this country. “The improvement in the value of our products is already being reflected in the buying power of the farming community, and the people generally. When the slump camq on and money was' tight, the farmers were disinclined to buy the necessary machinery, grass seeds, fertilizers,'eto., or to go to any expense in the improvement of their properties; hut ; now that they see a chance of obtaining reasonably good prices for their products, they arespending more freely.”