TRADE NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20312, 21 January 1928, Page 13

TRADE NOTES.

OVERSEAS TRADE DEPARTMENT. BRITISH POTTERY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 14. New Zealand and Australia have provided British pottery manufacturers with some exceptionally good business recently, and have, in fact, been responsible for the steady improvement m the btat fordshire industry s export trade dun g the latter part of this year. Great Britain's exports of pottery and china totalled £5,260,000 in the first 10 months of 1927, representing an increase oi £500,000 on the corresponding 1926 figure, and coming within £IOO,OOO of that for .1925.0 f this total, Australia and New Zealand have taken shipments valued at approximately £1,000,000. The cheaper classes of ware still account for the bulk of the shipments to these markets, and it is encouraging to notice that in this branch of the trade British manufacturers are more. than holding their own against intense Continental competition, but orders for good chinaware figured largely in Auckland and Wellington merchants’ seasonal indents for the Christmas trade, and there is no doubt that a substantial business in quality lines is slowly being built up. THE DAIRY BOARD.

The slight, but none the less marked, improvement in New Zealand s trade conditions during the past few months has been reflected in merchants indents tor British goods (says the British Export Gazette). and, although imports from the United Kingdom showed a decrease ot, roughly, 6 per cent, during the first threequarters of the year, there is reason to believe that this leeway will have been partly, if not wholly, made up in the last quarter. For this improvement several factors are responsible, but of these the most important has undoubtedly been the activity of the principal markets for New Zealand’s agricultural and dairy produce, and in this connection it will be interesting to see how far the Governments recently introduced export control scheme will be effective in stabilising prices and demand. At present the new regulations are meeting with some opposition, notably among local representatives of British importers who are called upon to “ permit their accounts to be audited from time to time in such manner as the Produce Board shall from time to time arrange,” but there is general agreement that if the scheme proves workable New Zealand’s overseas trade, as a whole, will benefit very considerably. DEPARTMENT OF OVERSEAS TRADE.

Empire Production refers to a statement made by Mr L. B. Beale, who maintains that the revised New Zealand Customs tariff enlarges the policy of British Empire preference. . “ A very considerable debt is due from manufacturers in Great Britain to Mr Beale,” says Empire Production. “ His work is one of the many complete answers to the suggestion that the Department of Overseas Trade should be abandoned; and in connection with' this tariff, very much credit is due to him. He has studiously avoided anything like interference with political or even politico-economic affairs, but he has ably and judiciously interpreted the'attitude of British industry to the Dominion. He has not only put the industrial point of view in the best light, but he has done the most important office enabling British industrialists to put themselves in the best position in the Dominion market. It is no lessening of the credit due to him to admit that Mr Beale works in a congenial field. There is no part of his Majesty’s dominions where a firmer or stronger sentiment for the British ideal exists, or a sounder and jnster judgment of the value of the Empire connection.”