CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, 29 April 1925, Page 7

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

ANNUAL MEETING

' The annual meeting of the South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce was held last night, when there were present—Messrs F. C.' May (president), T. R. Mackay, AV. H. Orbell, A. M. Nicholson, E. A. Hamilton, AV. G. Irwin,:, 'J. Cleland, L. Williams, E. E. Duncan, S. G. McClelland, J. Anstey, K. Shillito, It. 11. Bell, J. Meehan, A. M. H. Shirtcliff,. H. R. Hams, H. Lowry, P. B. Eoote and! J. Leggott (secretary). Before proceeding with the ordinary business, a motion of sympathy with the Prime Minister, m his illness, was passed. ■uninUAL REPORT AND BALANCE SheET. The annual report and balance sheet was react by the secretary, and adopted. The report dealt with tue business or the Chamber, in detail, for the year, and the membership was stated m it to be 100. The balance sheet disclosed a small credit balance. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. In tlie course of an interesting and comprehensive address, the president said he had been gratiiied with the increased attendance at and the interest shown in the meetings.. The secretaijj had been particularly zealous, Mr May went on to say that the late' war and its after effects drew attention very especially to the way in which the separate nations were largely interdependent. “The extension of all means of transport and communication is teaching us that the time when we could live in a watertight compartment free from the effects of any drastic happening to another nation is past. For these reasons we are directly interested in those big questions which are occupying the great- minds of all ■ nations. I speak now of problems af- I fecting the. commercial and economic side of international life rather than of social problems. These economic questions are largely the result of the, Great War; and include : The return to the , gold standard,) reparations and ; the Dawes plan, the huge war debts of the various nations. The exchange difficulty has in y some measure been stabilised, but. notwithstanding this, , loss and inconvenience in international, trade have been inevitable. . It naw Seems' 'eyldeht, that the- change tci--tlie' pre-war free market for gold’ will be made as soon as we aro strong enough to re-open our : gold market without having /to. protect our / stocks ,of, gold by Such high rates''!for money,-as .will 1 hamper trade and militate, against development and commercial interests , at Home and abroad. Experts seem to he, agreed that a free gold market ."-.in London/,is.,the surest,, guarantee-joy l.stabilitv in' world ..prices. Jfc is .to ~he hoped that "these benefits will accrue* and the question of immediate interest is whether, as.-is feared in .some quarters, a general reduction _ in prices will ensue before' such 'stabilisation. “The- improvement which is taking ■ place in the economic cohditiops on.(the: Continent is very welcome. Germany and. the interested Powers have accepted the Dawes report, and the signing of the London Agreement in August last, lias marked a great , step forward. . :./■* -!* “Among the problems of our own British Empire which Brave a direct bearing on the commercial life of the nation are our huge national indebtness. our industrial ditficuTties, and-tlie; problem of the coloured paces. Hpre,',iri New Zealand we are very fortunate, in that the past year lias shown a 6teady recovery in the economic position .qf our Dominion. Both the output of,; and, the prices for; /ourjpiain pfimaf.y-Tpfqducts,. have been highly | satisfactory. The unsettled condition of the United Kingdom' with the acute unemployment problem -has- .seriously I affected,,the, purchasing, power of our, best .market, .and were, it "not for/.the fact that' our main exports were staple commodities subject to steady demand in Ail manufacturing countries, we would. be suffering to a/liiucli larger extent from the depression ruling, in the Old Country. “While we look with satisfaction on statistics showing an excess of exports, the,Tact must not be overlooked that in addition to paying for our imports, our-exports have aiso to provide for payment of interest and redemption charges on Government!and local body loans; a,n amount of some six million pounds per year. The latest figures available for our imports are for the year 1923. , One point of interest is that of the country of origin of oiir imports. 52 per cent, came from .the United Kingdom, 21 per cent.; from other British possessions, leaving onlv ! 27 per cent, from the re=t of the world, 1 : of which U.S.A. contributed 16 per , cent-. ■ Tliis shows that most of the goods brought to New Zea'and. come from the United Kingdom, though tli? i per centage is a reducing one. caused : by the development of trade with other ' countries, principally United States and 1 ; Japan. - , “Butter and cheese are still shewing great increases in volume. The huge increase in value is not simply

an increase in price, for though our actual exports for 1914 were £5,b±3,196, the value of our 1924 exports computed at the same prices as at 1914 amounts to £10,358,031, or practically a doubling of our output in ten yejrs. This .important industry, representing over one-third of our exports, and ranking •in money value at 1J million pounds higher than our wool industries, is being steadily built up and consolidated. The particular problem of the industry to-day is, in regard to marketing. ' ‘ ‘Producers must be gratified with the excellent prices ruling for this season’s output of wool. No doubt those growers felt highly favoured and have every reason to congratulate themselves, who marketed their clips before the middle of December. Prices were established which growers had not expected, and worse still, were, not justified by the state of the trade. If there, had been busy spindles and looms in England, oil the Continent, and in America, there would have been some justification for a continuance of the prices set at Wellington and Napier, but directly the effects of the rise began to wear off,,it was felt that there was dangef in the market. Whatever the New Zealand pastoralist may think, the initial rise was not sound, and the subsequent drop was inevitable. It is to be remembered, however, that wool is still selling well as compared with pre-war prices, and the previous season’s average price has been considerably exceeded this season. A pleasing feature of the trade in wool and woollens has been thei extension of the markets, and IL mention Japan, China, America, Germany, France and Czechoslovakia. who are all buying in larger quantities. ! “The frozen meat industry, apart from the revenue it brings directly; to the producer and to all connected with it, is highly important to the farmer, in that it utilises a percentage of the grain grown, and also the liay and forage crops. It is largely on account of this factor that mixed farming is so important because of the .maintenance and conservation of the- fertility of the soil. The Dominion figures for both sheep and cattle show an increase in 1923 over the previous year, while tlie figures at April, 1924/again showed an increase as follows : —Sheep 694,0ai . cattle 82; 803: the total stoelc carned in New - Zealand being: Sheep 23,775,776, cattle 3,563,497. > “We in Canterbury are particularly interested in wheat, as approximately &0 per cent, of the Zealand supplies are grown here. It, is unfortunate that, New Zealand, with its unrivalled facilities of ltmd and climate, cannot 'grow sufficient, wheat for its own requirements. Tlie importations over a period of ve«rs have been : 1915, 522.61/ bushels: 1917, 719,977 bushels; 1918. 1.370,542 bushels; 1919, 1,336,322; 19‘0 1,905,163. In 1922 the abnormal harvest of 10J million bushels permit fed the export of 1J million bushels, while .1923-24 on the other hand re-, ouii-ed the importation of 3,000,000 bushels.. The yields have not .been satisfactory on the whole, and the agriculturist has not had a very handsome return, even with prices between; 6s and. 7s. >• . “Oats have shown a declining acreage sown and total Dominion yield for the past ten years. The _ have dropped from over 7} million bushels in 1915-16 to less than 2 millions in 192324. The present season has seen in our. district a very oat harvest, and a large quantity, both for seed and feed, will require to be railed from other more favoured- districts. „ ~ > , “The banking returns for the March quarter indicate that the unsatisfactory position in 1921 and 1922, when advances exceeded* I deposits by some five and six millions respectively, lias now been reversed. The large excess of deposits is brought about by returns, from produce shipped early in the year and from wool sold in the Dominion. Compared with. 1924, the deposits increased by £2,863,935, while advances decreased by £607,508, indicating that borrowers are now in a position to repay loans from the Banks, and generally showing a more satisfactory state of'affairs than for some time past. \ ' “During the year the Government set up. a Royal'Commission on taxation. Tlie Commission took voluminous evidence and submitted some 25 findings together with a similar number of recommendations. As a result of these recommendations, the Commissioner of Taxes will ask this year for the inclusion in the returns, of income from all sources, including company dividends. The question of alteration in tlie incidence of taxation will then he considered, and every suggested alteration will be followed by the commercial community ' with the closest interest.

“Timaru Harbour. Board.—The returns from this body for the, year 1924 showed that our exports were 59. i 52 tons —a decrease of 27,913 tons, as compared with the previous year, and the smallest since 1888. The principal items contributing to the decrease were Wheat, oats, chaff, flour, bran, pollard, and frozen meat. Our imports were 83,083 tons —an increase of 20,680 tons on last year’s 'figures,_ being largely accounted for by the importation of wheat and oats. Tho total ‘trade in and out of the port was:— 142,855 tons —tho lowest since _ 1918. Notwithstanding this fact, the shipping inwards, 531,661 tons, constitutes a record for the port. In terms of money, the total value of imports and exports, excluding coastal trade, was £2,962,148, and this also constitutes a record. I

“The Royal Commission on Railways sat at Timaru, and this Chamber submitted evidence on a number of important matters. During the year, the Minister of Railways submitted a programme of proposed now works, and included in that programme, was the arrangement of tlio Timaru rail wav yards to be commenced in five years's time. Continuous pressure has been brought to bear on the Minister, and it- i 6 hoped that we shall be able to announce shortly that tho work will be undertaken at a very much earlier date. The various proposals for popularising the railways and attracting business have aroused much interest, while the decision to separate the railway accounts to show the actual financial position year by year has met with general approval. “The year just completed has not been mai led by a strike of any magnitude. The railwaymen’s strike , of Easter, 1924. and the recent small shipping strike caused some dislocation and annoyance, but fortunately, both were settled without any very serious results. It is to be hoped that the future will be equally clear of serious strikes. A survey of fhe work of 1924, as disclosed by our exports of (in round figures) 50 millions, indicates to us the sheer hard work, grit and determination of not only the present generation, but the preceding ones. Such a monument to the efforts of a young country such as ours speaks volumes for tho industry and cooperation of her peoples. I trust that New Zealand may preserve, maintain and enhance her enviable record, and that industrial troubles may decrease to a vanishing point because of the better understanding and consideration between employer and employee. New Zealand has been justly called ‘God’s Own Country.’ May she long justify tho name, not only on account of her natural beauties and climatic conditions. hut also because her people have learned the secret of living in, harmony. I do not propose to attempt to] forecast the future. Banking returns and trade statistics go to show that the Dominion has practically, if not completely, recovered from the slump of four or five years ago. and i« again in a strong financial position. But we must not fm-get the lessons of that trying period." and if the surplus re-

suiting from increased prices of our primary products is properly conserved, and not expended in rash buying, ana if restriction is placed upon local body and Government borrowing I see no reason why there should not stretch ahead of New Zealand a long period of prosperity.’’. On resuming his seat, Mr May was warmly applauded. An interesting, discussion followed. Mr Meehan complimented Mr May on his informative address; thanked him for the,able way in which he had conducted tlie business of the Chamber during the year,- and said he would like to see him continue in office for at least another year. (Hear, hear.) Others who. spoke in terms of praise of what was .referred to'as tlie president's “most excellent review,’’ were Messrs R. B. Bell, A. M. H. Shirtcliff, H. Lowry, R. Shillito, T. R. Mackay, and AV. G. Irwin. - : Tlie president thanked members for their ,very complimentary- remarks, but said that the gx-oater part of the credit for file progress which the Chamber had made, was due to their secretary (Mr J. Leggotf). , ’ ELECTION OF Mr May was pressed to continue in office as' President of the Chamber, members speaking in very flattering terms of the work which he had done during the past year. Mr May could not see his way to continue in office, and Mr P. B. Foote was elected president. 1 Other officers were elected as follows :—Vice-president, Mr F. C. May; committee,. Messrs J. Anstey, J. Cleland/AV. H. Orbell, R. J. Halstead, A. M. Nicholson, AV. G. Irwin, H. Lowry, T. R. Mackay, J. Meehan, R. B. Bell, and E. A. Hamilton; lion, auditor, Mr A. C. Martih (with thanks for past services). 1 . ' The annual subscription was fixed at £1 Is for individual members, and £2 2s for compa-nies and local bodies. ■ It was decided to have the Chamber incorporated, and to have the rules revised. •• ! This concluded tlie business, hut before' dispersing, the meeting passed a very hearty vote of thanks to Mr May for all that he had done for the Chamber, as its president.