AUSTRALIAN TRADE

Otago Witness, Issue 3519, 23 August 1921, Page 21

AUSTRALIAN TRADE

IMPORTS OVERTAKE EXPORTS. BY FORTY ONE MILLIONS. (Fbom Oub Own Cobrespondent.) SYDNEY, August 10. The delegates to the yearly sessions of the Chamber of Commerce were giad to learn from tho lips of too president (Mr J M. Paxton) that the falling off in trade ia Australia during the past year had been small compared with that which had taken place in other countries, but he left no misgivings as to the seriousness of the situation through which the commonwealth has recently been passing, and the need that exists for all sections of the community to pull together to increase production and restore our national prosperity. This point lie drove home with the arresting fact that for the 12 months ended June 30, 1920, the exports from the commonwealth exceeded the imports in value by over fifty million sterling, while the preliminary figures for the year just closed showed that the imports exceeded the exports by over forty-one million. Obviously that cannot continue, and it showed at a glance the cause of the restricted credits and the difficulties of exchange which hive been worrying us so much. Two steps which Mr Paxton indicated as being essential to getting our house in order were a complete cessation of borrowing in London, the annual interest charge of private and public indebtedness oversea having reached the enormous figure of £25,000,000, and the severest possible limitation of imports. Another matter upon which Mr Paxton made a timely observation was the improvement of telegraphic communication across the world. He pointed out that the cable companies could not.be expected to spend large sums in duplication when wireless threatened to render their whole system olisolet.e, yet the authorities would neither push forward with wireless themselves or permit private enterprise to do so. Such a dog-in-the-manger attitude, he said, should