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Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 3 January 1930, Page 10

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BEAVERBROOK SCHEME SCORNED IN CANADA. VANCOUVER, November 13. Lord Beaverbrook’s scheme for Empire free trade, launched in Canada by his personal representative, has been widely ridiculed. One of its effects would be to wreck the reciprocity treaty in force for the last four years between Canada on the one hand and Australia and New Zealand on the other. Lord Beaverbrook is apparently not aware of the existence of the treaty, which was under negotiation for twenty years before it was finally adopted. All three Dominions might be expected to make every effort to prevent its being scrapped, which would certainly follow the Beaverbrook plan to have all foodstuffs, in which the Dominions are competitors, placed on the free list. Imperial free trade and economic unity are the means by which Lord Beaverbrook would graduate to Mr Baldwin’s position as leader of the Conservative Party, but there is little substance behind them as far as Canadian opinion is concerned. What Scheme Means. His plan means that Britain is to put a tax on wheat and beef from the Argentine, while they are admitted free from Canada. It means, also, on the other hand, that the Dominions are severally to let manufactured products of Great Britain enter dutv free, while they set up a prohibitive tax against the entry of similar products from all the non-J3ritish countries. It does not sound like British policy to make the Empire a sacred trade enclosure, on the pattern of the United States, only much larger, within which it may let the rest of the world go by. The Vancouver “ Daily Province,” a leading journal in Western Canada, is sharply critical of the Beaverbrook plan. “ It is when we examine the purely political implications of this scheme that it is revealed in all its matchless assurance,” it says. “ Lord Beaverbrook may believe that he is able, by the magic of this abracadabra, to revolutionise the politics and the economics of Great Britain to beat the Labour Party, to bury the Liberals, to divide the Conservatives and to consign Stanley Baldwin to oblivion. Nobody else believes it. Still less does anybody believe that he can harmonise and conjoin the disparate policies of all the parties of all the Dominions on this issue. “ The proper name for the Beaverbrook manifesto is the Beaverbrook Ballyhoo.” COOLING MACHINERY STOPS; CARGO SPOILT. (United Press Assn. —By Elec trio Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received January 3, 1.45 p.m.) LONDON, January 2. Eleven hundred cases of butter were damaged through a stoppage of the refrigerating machinery on the steamer Canadian Britisher, from Adelaide. Immediate sale is recommended. Thousands of carcases of mutton were jettisoned. BANK OF ENGLAND. WEEKLY RETURNS. (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. > (Received January 3, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, January 2. The Bank cf England returns for the week ended January 2 are as follows: —Gold and silver coin £150,433,268, against £150,369,524 last week. The reserve in notes and coin is £36,333,165, compared with £26,453,746 last week. The proportion of reserves to liabilities is 22.60 per cent, against 22.80 per cent last week. The circulation is £369,782,581, compared with £379,573,841 last week. ISSUE DEPARTMENT.

178,175,888 MONEY MARKET. The Bank of England rate of discount is 5 per cent (December 12, 1929). Short loans are quoted at 3 2 per cent, and the market rate of discount for best three-month bills is 4 13-16 per

£ Notes issued— „ „„ In circulation 269,782,581 In banking department . . 36,177,503 Total 405,960,084 Government debt 11,015,100 Other Govt, securities .... 233,816,364 Other securities 10,695,352 Silver coin 4,473,184 Fiduciary issue 260,000,000 Gold coin and bullion .... 145,960,084 405,960,084 BANKING DEPARTMENT. £ £ Proprietors’ capital 14,553,000 Rest 3,450,561 Public deposits . 12,350,138 Other deposits— Bankers 110,297,026 Other accounts 37,522,803 147,819,829 Seven-day and other bills . . 2,360 178,175,888 Government securities SI,658,618 Other securities—Discounts and advances 42,170,602 Securities .... 18,013,530 60,184,132 Notes 36,177,503 Gold and silver coin 155,662