MONEY MARKET.

Southland Times, Issue 17014, 12 April 1912, Page 5

MONEY MARKET.

it is ton soon nftcr tho end nf the quarter (says the N.Z. Trade Review of March 1 ) for any of the usual returns to he available, but tue banking returns should he out within tho next week, and these will be looked for with interest to see how the supply of funds stands in this quarter. There is no doubt that the general supply of money has lessened recently, and tho firmer tone of tho market, referred to in our last Issue, is still noticeable, but does not amount to anything in the nature of real stringency. it appears fairly certain that our imports to .list March will exhibit a further increase, but our exports for the last quarter will aUo show an improvement, and the difference between those will probably be about the same as at r, Ist December. This matter tias recently been engaging more attention than ■'usual in the local papers on account of the narrow margin between the two. One exports should undoubtedly provide enough to pay for onr imports and outside interest obligations, but in this connection it must be remembered that a good part of our loans come out in the form of goods, and that, especially in a. young country, like N'ew Zealand. a fair amount of the imports are needed for capital expenditure rather ilian daily consumption. Thus we see that from IS7O to ISSa we had an average yearly excess of imports of nearly a million, but since thou there lias been an average excess of exports of roughly 2 1 millions a year. We see therefore [hat the present position nf imports approximat'd;.- equalling exports is nothing new, hut stii! it should engage the attention of those interested, in llm direction firstly of reducing importation, and secondly of further settlement nf the land to increase the production of our primary nrnducts.