EMPIRE PARTNERS

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XX, Issue 6491, 6 April 1922, Page 2

EMPIRE PARTNERS

NEW'ZEALAND AND MOTHERLAND

OUR TRADE WITH BRITAIN

BIG OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD. "New Zealand stands very well at Homo just now," writes a London merchant to a prominent business man at Wellington, 'and there seems to bo a big opportunity for trade—provided 1 , of course, that labour and financial conditions do not materially change, and provided also, that business people generally will recognise that the continuation of pre-war conditions means in the long run stagnation of trade—and ruin. THE IMPOSSIBLE. "To me it .seems inexplicable that so many are endeavouring to achieve the unattainable. They have boon enjoying a period of (shall I call it?) ai tiliciall prosperity that many have deluded themselves into the belief that this state of things would last for ever. They forgot to provide for the aftermath of war, and now they arc paying the penalty that it always exacted. They forgot that the nation wa s at war' and that tho enormous increases, asked for and obtained were merely dud to the fact that the war was on, and that extraordinary national conditions brought about extraordinary trade and, commercial conditions. The Armistice came ho suddenly that many wierc caught napping—nodding contentedly, basking in th© sun of wonderful (but abnormal) prosperity. I know of one firm—and there are many others—which must have nwV a profit of close on a. million during the war. It wa s quite legitimate trade, but they did not make provision for the slump, and the business now stands [ with the war jirofits gone and a debit of neai-ly a million. There are others, and the'financial world, will probably ! hear some more resounding crashes.

X.Z. KEPT ITS -HEAD.

"That is <why I am glad to see that New Zealand (and Australia) has not lost its head. Of course, you made huge profits during the war, but it was made mostity out of supplies, and y° ur industries (other than primary) did not expand and prosper a s was the case here, and in France and America*. The Yanks have had the best en<J. of the stick,, and no one who understands the true position, and the difficulties that beset them (and had to be overcome) before they were able to participate in the war, will grudge them tjio full fruits of their la bout; .and capital investments.