KING GUSTAV OF SWEDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23527, 16 June 1938, Page 8

KING GUSTAV OF SWEDEN

EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY TO-DAY To-day the people of Sweden are commemorating the eightieth birthday of his Majesty King Gustav V., who was born on June 16, 1858. He succeeded to the throne in December, 1907, and is the oldest reigning monarch, in point of years, in Europe. To mark the occasion the Swedish people have inaugurated a national subscription for medical research that would benefit all mankind, as the encouragement of such research work has always lain very closely to the King’s heart. His Majesty was invited to suggest the exact form of research to which he would like to see the money devoted, and he expressed the wish

that the fund should be used in seeking the causes of, and discovering effective remedies, for rheumatic diseases and infantile paralysis. A similar fund, raised on the occasion of the King’s seventieth birthday, brought in the splendid total of £275.000. On that occasion the fund was earmarked for cancer research and the establishment of cancer clinics. Large sums from it have been spent on purchases of radium, and some of the clinics are now open. King Gustav is a remarkably active man for his age, and still participates in lawn tennis tournaments on the Riviera, where for many years he has been a well-known figure during the season. New Zealands’ trade with Sweden shows a balance very strongly in favour of the latter. Exports from Sweden for the year 1936 (the last year for which full figures are available) were in the region of £287,000, made up principally of the following items; wood pulp and paper pulp, dairying machinery, electrical machinery and apparatus, vacuum cleaners, timber, and paper. Our exports to Sweden for the same period amounted to only £64,936, to which, of course, must be added a certain amount re-ex-ported through London. This amount is made up almost entirely of wool (greasy and scoured) and cattle hides, though in past years there have been exports of tallow and apples—not. however, to any great extent.

It is interesting to note that the port of Dunedin accounted for a larger share of the export trade than any ofher in the Dominion, the figures for 1936 being; Through the port of Dunedin, £23,076; through the port of Bluff, £2128; making a total of £25,204 out of £64,936.