THE EXODUS OF TRADE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 656, 21 March 1879, Page 2

THE EXODUS OF TRADE.

The fact is, the prospects of trade in tin's country are just now far from satisfactory. They are sufficient, indeed, to nullify the ordinary feelings of gaiety at this festive season, and combined with the present discomforts of an abnormally severe winter, and the terrors of a devastating plague epidemic in the immediate future, make life anything but enjoyable. Nor is it alone that strikes and failures intensify the gloom of the prevailing depression ; there is an uncomfortable feeling- that our trade is leaving us, never, perhaps, to return. Various significant facts point in this direction. First, there is the direct and seemingly successful competition of foreign manufacturers. German steel and Belgian hardware, French calicoes and cloths, are already offered in our own markets at lower rates than our own productions, while in the United States the application of machinery to manufactures which are made up of interchangeable parts, such as guns, clocks, watches, and locks — enable the Americans to undersell us on every side. There is no limit, indeed, to competition of this kind, and it is well worth the consideration of the more thriving and importent Colonies whether they may not with advantage follow the example of the United States. As the Colonies are always short of labour, the development of machinery in them might facilitate production to an enormous extent.