FUTURE PROSPECTS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12084, 22 June 1920, Page 5

FUTURE PROSPECTS.

Speaking on the future of produce markets and trade the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand at the annual meeting said .-—With the cessation of the Imperial Government's purchase of produce, the producers of New Zealand must make the best arrangements they can for the financing and marketing of their produce. The Banks will, no doubt, on terms and couditions to be arranged, be called upon to provide very large sums for this purpose. That the position is full of difficulty and danger must be obvious to all. The stores are lull of produce which cannot possibly be moved before tbe flush of the nest season, shipping is still scarce and likely to remain so, and the terminal markets are glutted so far as meat and wool are concerned. It may be desirable, if noi imperative, to look for new markets for wool and meat, but in this connection wo can but turn to America, which is the only country apart from Britain that can offer a market. The British Government is itself endeavouring to avail itself of the American market in an effort to quit its own accumulations of wool and meat. The prospects in the United States appear no better than they are in Grnar Britain. Wool offered in Now York registered a sharp decline, and it is yet to bo determined whether a reasonably good market can be secured there for mutton and lamt/, although, for the latter, arrangements have been made for several shipments within the nest few months totalling, in all, about 500, OOu carcases. In respect to frozen meat the United States Bureau of Markets, Omaha, under date sth March, said :—"Following the announcement of the exportation of 300,000 lamb and mutton carcases by ihe British Government to the United States early in the week all Eastern lamb and mutton markets were sharply lowered. Declines for the weok ranged from 2 dollars at Boston to 4 dollars at New York and Philadelphia, with all grades similarly affected and conditions at the close of the week unsettled."

Since the importation of frozen meat has the effect of cheapenir-g that article, there ie some hope that the markets of the Eastern States may be capable of absorption, but care will have to be taken in dealing with markets on the Pacific Slopp. A San Francisco firm in a circular letter to correspondents says:—"We strongly advise against New Zealand shippers sending any meats to this Coast on consignment unless they want to get 'stung,' as it is an easy matter to trade on other people's money. If Coast dealers want lamb, mutton or other meat products they can put up a letter of credit, otherwise the New Zealand dealers had better keep their meats in their freezers, as we have known meat products to have practically eaten themselves up with storage and other charges when shipped to this Coast on consignment."

The address concluded:—The circumstances of the time demand that businoss men shornd rather take in sail than crowd on canvas; and all would be well advised not to stretch their financial commitments too far. The civilised world has been suffering from an excess of "idle fancies" which have contributed to a mass of social and economic theories that have clouded people's minds and led many of them actually to believe that they can and will live and prosper by these theories rather thanby work. There are certain economic principles by which men and nations live and prosper, and never before, at least in living memory, was there such a need to bring back a full recognition of these principles. The world's need for reconstruction is real and pressing, and the altitude so generally prevailing toward work and production must undergo a change unless disorganisation or perhaps disaster is to eventuate. Diminished production, decreased thrift and curtailed credit furnish the essential elements of a financial crisis and such a crisis seems inevitable in the not distant future unless we abandon dreaming and settle down to work and the practice of thrift. "Increase production and avoid extravagance" should be the siogan for the people of Now Zealand.