N.Z'S GREAT PROSPERITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 640, 17 April 1929, Page 9

N.Z'S GREAT PROSPERITY

SIR I AMES PARR SPEAKS TO NOTED GUESTS IMPRESSIVE TRADING DONE (United P.A.—By Telegraph. — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) LONDON, Tuesday. New Zealand has never known greater prosperity than to-day, declared Sir James Parr at the New Zealand Association's annual dinner, ]VTORB than 300 guests attended. jaa. They included the Earl of Plymouth, Sir Basil Blackett, Mr. Montagu Norman, Governor o£ the Bank of England, Admiral Sir James Fergusson, Sir Otto Niemeyer, Sir Thomas Inskip, Attorney-General, the High Commissioners for Australia, South Africa, the Irish Free State and Southern Rhodesia, the Agents-General for New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Sir James Parr, High Commissioner for New Zealand, proposed the toast of the guests. He paid a high tribute to Sir Basil Blackett as chairman of the new Communications Company, which will link up the cable and wireless services throughout the Empire. In welcoming Sir Granville Ryrie, High Commissioner for Australia, Sir James said the Commonwealth was 40 times the size of New Zealand, yet the latter generally managed to borrow in London h to 1 per cent, better than Australia. Alluding to trade, the speaker said New Zealand had never known greater prosperity than to-day. The trade of a mere li million people last year amounted to £101,000,000. New Zealand’s problem was to find markets for the. increasing volume of her products. Sir James said he still believed the British market was the best. WOOL TRADE’S NEED In responding, Sir Basil Blackett said one of his earliest visits In Britain was to Bradford, where he was most impressed with the need for the rationalisation of the wool trade. He said he believed the producers of wool in Australia and New Zealand and the wool manufacturers in Britain could advantageously get together and arrange to deal with an Increased production of wool and its manufactures throughout the Empire and the world. In the seven years before the war, out of £454,000,000 which London financiers lent to the Empire, £188,000,000 went to Governments and municipalities, and £266,000,000 to business concerns. In the seven years ended 1928 London financiers had lent to the Empire £500,000,000, of which £365,000,000 went to Governments and municipalities, but only £136,000,000 to business concerns. Therein lay an opportunity to study Empire economics, for, obviously, advances to business concerns generally more quickly yielded profits than advances to Governments. Sir Thomas Insklp, in toasting Sir James Parr, said he was as versatile a politician as Mr. Churc / 1. In responding, Sir James suggested to the Attorney-General that if he was not employed after the general election he should write his (Sir James’s) biography.