Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1933 BOOKING FORWARD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 17977, 3 January 1933, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1933 BOOKING FORWARD

What, about the new year! Is there any reasonable hope, some time soon, of better times ? Gan we expect business to look up and the prices of our products to improve? Is the Ottawa trade agreement going to help us sell our meat and butter and .wool at prices that will enable the farmers io pay their way and thus lead to greatei employment and improved business conditions in the Dominion? May we expect from the forthcoming World Economic Conference in Loudon such an adjustment of debts, tariffs',and monetary exchanges as will load 1o improved trade between the nations and a general return to prosperity I Questions such as these must be in the thoughts and on the lips of everyone at the commencement of 1933. He would indeed be a sapient individual who could offer to give a positive answer to any one of them. It would be idle to pretend that one can know more than the governor of the Brink of England, who thinks he can just discern the light shimmering at the far end of a dark tunnel, but who is quite content to take fortune, as it comes step by slop. At the same time there are reasons for confidence that the year we have just entered upon is going to be the year in which the upward swing of the pendulum will commence. The international conferences at London and Geneva may or may not effect any immediate results. Like Mr. W. M. Hughes, just back from Geneva, we arc rather inclined to be sceptical about these conferences. They are too cumbersome; too much inclined to deal in pleasant generalieties without being able to reach conclusions making for definite action. We have greater faith in Mr. Hughes’ prediction that Great Britain is going to lead the nations in the way back to sound economic conditions. Already she is doing this. All the reports from England of late are of an encouraging nature. But best of all .is the stability of sterling, which has been aide to hold its value against all the adverse factors of the last few months, thus demonstrating the confidence which other nations repose in the character of the British people and belief in their ability to win through. It is this generation of confidence in some stable monetary unit that is going to bring recovery of trade and resumption of financial operations. Mr. Stanley Baldwin, speaking at Sunderland on December 3, told his audience that he believed for the first time that the tide of industry in the United Kingdom had turned. During the past decade Great Britain had dropped to third place among the exporting nations of the world, whilst latest figures available showed that she was back in first place. The fact that the Ottawa Conference had laid a solid foundation for future Empire trade was evidenced by the apprehension aroused in foreign countries. Get. many, for instance, expected that a quarter of her exports to South Africa and Canada would be placed at a disadvantage by increased preferences on Empire goods, while conditions in India were still less favorable firm the standpoint of Germany. Other advices from the Homeland show that the Christmas trade has been most satisfactory. Business men are pleased to find after so many months ot gloom that trade in many lines has shown a decided advance and that countries which a year ago were certain the United Kingdom was slipping from its commercial anchors now recognise it as one of the greatest of stabilising forces in the world. Big foreign financial houses have begun to take a new interest in London ns an investment centre. South American banks are putting money into sterling rather than into the American dollar. Germany and France are finding that British industries, like those of iron and steel, cannot be ruled out as com petitors in the European market. Norway, Sweden and Denmark have been negotiating trade pacts which can only mean that they will buy more from England in the future. In the home markets commodity sales have improved and show better returns. Orders continue to arrive for raw materials even from parts id' the world where trade is stagnant, enough at the momenet. Sheffield looks (onward to profitable trade and Newcastle coal exports are going up. Those are just a few of the facts which are giving Hu* British business man heart and courage. Ho will not say that they are the forerunners of a real recovery in business, but lie imagines that they might be so. At all events, they bear out the forecasts that “the corner has been turned at last.” The London Chamber of Commerce, the most, powerful body of its kind in the Empire, has evolved a plan to break through the vexatious barriers created by monetary exchange restrictions now operating to Great. Britain’s dist advantage in 3d different count lies. New Zealand’s fortunes are related so intimately to tho fortunes of the Motherland that these instances of renewed confidence at Home are, to saj the least, encouraging. We hav - great expectation that during the com-

ing year the l'mits of Ottawa will begin ru be realised and that, there will be built up a stronger community, of interest between the respective parts of the Empire, with increased trade and probably better prices. Adjustments 1o that end are already being made. For this Dominion there is the gratifying knowledge that our favorable trade balance is being mantained and that Now Zealand stands in the highest favor with investors, merchants, and the public of Britain. The road to business recovery may still have its up and downs, and the end may not be quite in sight, but there, is reasonable hope and expectation ior the belief that we are actually on the road and that substantial economic improvement is not, so very tar around the corner.