TRADE REVIVAL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20360, 18 July 1934, Page 9

TRADE REVIVAL.

Warning Note Sounded by Sir Joaiah Stamp.

(Special to the. '* Star.”) LONDON, June 12.

The recent progress of Derby was typical of all those industrial centres which were not too prominently dependent upon staple export trade, but had a varied range of industries with a good home market, said Sir Josiah Stamp, speaking at a joint luncheon of the Derby Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club. There was increased activity in engineering, castings, cables, motors, blastfurnaces, artificial silk, hosiery and building. Unemployment was less than one-half of January 1933, the railway traffic in the district had increased by 11 per cent for goods over last year, but recent weeks, especially if allowance was made for seasonal movements, showed a distinct slackening in the rate of improvement.

This was characteristic of the country as a whole, and the indications were that, in certain industries, the immediate limits of demand in the domestic market were being reached. Railway traffics were a good barometer, and the receipts, though not a complete guide to business activity, were still running some 17 per cent below the 1929 level. Every effort was being made to keep the expenses from rising with the increasing volume of traffic, but the increases and improvements in services to attract the traffic were expense deliberately undertaken and not yet reaping its full reward. As regards the general progress of industry, it would be necessary not to lose confidence through the consequences of banking too heavily on a resumption of the acceleration of last year. The “ Economist ” index of inoo neSS i gained six points in 1J33, and another five since, but it had been stationary recently. The time was fast coming when we must look increasingly to a revival of foreign trade for further advance in our trade activity, and here the outlook was as uncertain as ever.

COMPANY AFFAIRS. Christchurch Gas Declare Interim Dividend. At the meeting of the directors of the Christchurch Gas, Coal and Coke ( ompany, Ltd., yesterday afternoon an interim dividend of 3 per cent was declared for the six months ended June 30, 1934. Mercantile Mutual Insurance Dividend. Directors of the Mercantile Mutual Insurance Co., Ltd., have decided to recommend payment of a dividend at a rate of 6 per cent per annum for the year ended .Tune 30. Dividend for the previous year was 4 per cent. NEW ZEALAND INSURANCE. The New Zealand Insurance Co., Ltd., bus advised the Stock Exchange Association that the transfer books will be closed from July 24 to August 6, both days inclusive.