TRADE PROSPECTS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2126, 7 December 1920, Page 8

TRADE PROSPECTS.

NO NEED FOR PESSIMISM. GOOD TIME FOR PRODUCERS. CSpecial to Tho San.] MASTERTON, December 7. That there is ho need for undue pessimism on the part of the Dominion's primary is the opinion of several who are in close touch with affairs, and one prominent producer maintains that the slogan, "Business as Usual," would serve equally as good a purpose now as it did when trade and industry were so paralysed soon after the outbreak of War. One of the latest to attempt to allay the fears of the producer is Mr J. C. Cooper, man-aging-Director of the Wellington Farmers' Meat Co., who has just returned to Masterton from a visit to the Old Country. Mr Cooper implies that the condition of affairs in England to-day is the aftermath of an orgy of extravagance launched at the end of the War. The granting of gratuities and the release of so much money made people spend all too freely, but.not wisely, and only the very best and most expensive goods were saleable. Factories were established to produce necessary goods, but people desired absolute luxuries, and, instead of producing the goods which were wanted so badly by the world, the industries pandered to this whirlwind of extravagance. . The shipbuilding and steel industries were working at high pressure, but other industries—particularly the motor industry—were lagging. There were wholesale dismissals of emplovees—one firm dismissed 2000 of its workers in one week. The banks were having great difficulty in financing industrial concerns, and, now, with the reaction, thousands of people were going to have a bad time this winter. Coarser woollen cloth was being sought after again, though not to the extent expected. However, matters would soon right themselves, "and," said Mr Cooper, "for vears to come we are going to get big prices for our meat and dairv produce. The producers in the Dominion are going to have a good time. As soon as existing stocks at Home are exhausted there will be an improvement in the price of coarse wools. Unless there is some unforeseen serious trouble at Home, farmers are going > to get prices for their produce which they do not dream of to-day."