DOMINION HONOURED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 91, 17 April 1929, Page 7

DOMINION HONOURED

FINE TRADE RECORD INDICATION OF PROSPERITY The opinion that the producers of wool in Australia and New Zealand, and the wool manufacturers in Britain, could advantageously get together and arrange to deal with the increased production and its manufacture throughout the Empire and the world, was expressed by Sir Basil Blackett at the New Zealand Association’s annual dinner. [ Australian Press Assn. J Received April 16, 11 p.m. LONDON, April 16. Over 300 guests attended the New Zealand Association’s annual dinner, including Sir Basil Blackett, Sir [Montague Norman, Sir James Ferguson, Sir Otto Niemeyer, Sir Thomas Inskip, the High Commissioners for Australia and South Africa, the Irish Free State and Southern Rhodesia, the AgentsGencral for New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Sir James Parr, toasting the guests, paid a tribute to Sir Basil Blackett, as the chairman of the new communications company linking up cable and wireless throughout the Empire. In welcoming Sir Granville Ryrie (Australian High Commissioner) he pointed out that the Commonwclath was 40 times the size of New Zealand, yet the latter managed to borrow in, London at one and a-half to one per centum better* than Australia. Alluding to trade, he said that New Zealand never knew greater prosperity than to-day. The trade of a mere 1,500,000 people last year amounted to £101,000,000. New Zealand’s problem was to find markets for an increasing volume of products. Personally he still believed that the British was the best market. Sir Basil Blackett, responding, said that one of his earliest visits to Britain was to Bradford, where he was most impressed with the need for nationalisation of the wool trade. He believed that the prdducors of wool in Australia and New Zealand and the wool manufacturers in Britain could advantageously get together and arrange to deal with the increased production of wool and its manufacture throughout the .Empire and the world. He pointed out that during the seven years before the war, out of £454,000.000 which London lent to the Empire, £188,000,000 v.v t to governments and municipalities and £266,000,000 to business concerns. For the seven years to 1928, London had lent to the Empire £500,000,000, of which £365.000,000 went to governments and municipalities, but only £136,000,000 to businesses. Herein lay an opportunity to study Empire economics, for obviously advances to businesses generally more quickly yielded profits than advances to governments. Sir Thomas Inskip, toasting Sir James Parr, recalled he had made two fortunes as a farmer and a lawyer before he was aged 40, while he was as versatile a politician as Mr Winston Churchill. Sir James, responding, suggested that Sir Thomas Inskip, if unemployed after the general election, should write his biography.