TRADE AND FINANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19465, 28 April 1925, Page 7

TRADE AND FINANCE

WOOL TEXTILE INDUSTRY. A STEADY IMPROVEMENT. Press Aaa'vaistion— By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, April 26. The event of the ■week was a visit of a deputation, from the Wool Textile Association to the Committee cm Industry and Trade, when important evidence was siibmitted by influential witnesses. The principal difficulties arising from external circumstances were said to be the uncertainty of the raw material position and the heavy fluctuations in wool values during the last three or four years, and also the competition from countries with depreciated currencies. There was also competition from new countries. Italy, for example, was actively competing for the foreign markets, and Japan was bent upon establishing a wool industry of her own. Members of the delegation said it was evident that the consumption of wool and its substitutes had increased during the post three or four years, and that the machinery activity was gradually recovering fawn the abnormal position of the great slump of 1921. while the .turnover in manufactured goods was greater. There was still, however, much leeway to make up before the pre-war volume of trade was reached, but the witnesses said it was true that, on the whole, the actual improvement in the turnover had been as good in England as it was in any other textile producing country. Britain’s percentage of the total world trade in the wool textiles was at least equal to the pre-war figures. THE INDUSTRIAL OUTLOOK. The federation of British Industries will publish next week its quarterly forecast. This will point out that while last October’s prediction of an improvement in trade is being fulfilled as regards the world as a whole, the improvement so far as Britain is concerned has been disappointing, but there is no need to be pessimistic. Certainly, the position of the British constructional trades is serious, but this is also true of ; the same trades throughout Europe, much of the trouble being due to the existence of temporary over-expan-sion of capacity in the case of the iron, steel, and shipbuilding trades, and the substitution of oil for coal in the coal mining industry; but in contrast "with these positions,- the manufacturing trades generally show a substantial improvement both at home and abroad. —A. and N.Z. Cable.