Thames Star WEDNESDAY, DEC. 11, 1929. AN UNEQUAL BALANCE.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17764, 11 December 1929, Page 4

Thames Star

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 11, 1929. AN UNEQUAL BALANCE.

“With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”—-Lincoln.

The punishing level to which the United States is preparing to raise duties on wool, butter, meat and other of New Zealand’s products directs attention once more to the unequal balance of the trade between the two countries. The exchange is all in America’s favour. In the first nine months of the current year New Zealand sold to the United States £3,302,527 worth of goods, and received in exchange imports valued at £7,098,860, leaving the Dominion £3,796,333 on the wpong side of the ledger. Compared with the corresponding period of last year, the unfavourable. balance has increased by £1,268,659. It is difficult to see how this top-heavy tendency is to be corrected under America’s new and higher scale of duties against our products. There has in recent years been a growing sentiment to buy where we sell, to give our custom to . our chief customer —Great Britain —but the latest returns do not show an increase in British imports comparable with that recorded in the ease of America. Actually the proportion is less, 45.42 per cent, in the nine months compared with 47,87 per cent. Meanwhile the United States has increased its percentage from 18.04 to 19.53. The remedy is hard to find, but at least there might well be a better translation of sentiment into practice. The promise of improved merchandising and salesmanship on Britain’s behalf should, however, accomplish more than lipservice can do.