THE VOICE OF COMMERCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 74, 23 March 1912, Page 4

THE VOICE OF COMMERCE.

Reading between the linos of the annual report of the Chamber of Commerce (says the 'Wellington “Post”), it is clearly seen that the council of that body is concerned as to the future. It refers to the 1907-1908 period, when the value of imports exceeded that of exports by £1,380,231. and next to the following year when the value of exports was £3,784,15-1 over that of the year immediately preceding. For the year 1909-1910 there was the still larger balance of exports of £5,856,978. But for tin year ended 30th September the balance of exports over imports is narrowed down to what the Chamber of Commerce Council describes as “a serious decline, the exports exceeding the imports by £1,300,696 only. The exports, then, have dropped two millions and the imports have increased two and a half millions.” Further, it is shown that “the margin of exports will not be sufficient to meet the obligations of the Dominion for interest payment on loans.” The situation may not warrant so much con-

corn ns the remarks in tlio report would imply; but at the same Line they should not go unheeded by trades as a body, wholesale and retail, better prices for butter and cheese cannot bo looked for next season, for this is a record due in some measure to unprecedented dry weather in the dairying countries of the Northern Hemisphere. The price of wool six months hence is a matter of, conjecture, by reason of the groat industrial disturbance in the United Kingdom, by no means at an end, and which must seriously affect values, even if peace between employer and employed were proclaimed tonight, for money not earned cannot bo spent. The frozen meat market is a very uncertain quantity, and both South America > and /Australia cannot be regarded as other than serious competitors in mutton, and, to some extent, in lamb. In any case, whatever happens in the various markets, the warning—for such it is—of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce is entitled to respect, even though subsequent events should prove, as we devoutly hope, that things turned out bettor than they promised at the outset.