Capital in London.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20260, 21 March 1934, Page 6

Capital in London.

Sound Ventures

Westport Engineers Observations.

COUND mining and industrial ventures can secure capital in London, but it is useless sending plans to London unless the most thorough investigations have been carried out locally, said Mr H. R. Young, A.M.Inst.C.E, of Westport,' who has just returned to New Zealand after spending seventeen months abroad as the representative of Coal Distillation and By-Products (N.Z.), Ltd. Mr Young added that all propositions were sub-

mitted to specially trained technical staffs with commercial experience. All the facts regarding an undertaking should be marshalled in as brief a space as possible for the attention of busy men. Mr Young said he was of opinion that the overseas trade of Great Britain was slowly recovering and London machinery manufacturers he met said that a distinct improvement in trade had taken place during the past twelve months. At the same time Britain was experiencing a strenuous time keeping its millions employed. Formerly Britain was the workshop of the world, but to-day other countries were becoming rapidly industrialised. The recent British Industries Fair at Olympia showed a vast variety of new articles that were being manufactured. Balance of Trade. A close watch was now being kept in England on the balancing of imports and exports with any particular country. If England imported foodstuffs grown in a country, that country was required to take a considerable quota of exports from England. Another extremely important point was the grading of foodstuffs imported into England. It was almost unnecessary to emphasise that to compete successfully the foodstuffs must be of uniformly high quality. High exchanges adopted by the dominions worked against the export trade of Britain, and it was hoped that the time was approaching when there would be a general parity of exchange within the Empire. Best Quality Only. Every care should be taken to place the best quality only of New Zealand products on the British and Continental markets. The position of the butter market should be very carefully watched in order to obtain the best price possible for the New Zealand article, as in some quarters the opinion was expressed that New Zealand butter was being sold at a comparatively low rate. This at the present time, when .such large bulk supplies were coming into Britain, might be unavoidable. It must, however, be remembered that a rise of one penny per pound meant an additional income to New Zealand of approximately one million pounds. One of the most disturbing factors in world trade to-day w r as Russia, which exported bulk cargoes at very low prices in order to establish credits abroad for the imports of machinery for the industrialisation of that country which was going on.