NEW ZEALAND INTEREST

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 151, 23 December 1929, Page 13

NEW ZEALAND INTEREST

AN ANTI-PESSIMIST

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, 7th November

New Zealand has obtained some kudos for sending her gold to London. A.paragraph, the source of which is not disclosed, is widely published in the London and provincial press. Befcrring to the £500,000 which came here from the Dominion last week, the writer says:— "It would have 1)0011 more profitable to the Bank of New Zealand to have shipped gold to America, but these sovereigns have been sent to London in preference to San Francisco, as the Now Zealand authorities appreciate that every "addition of gold to the Bank of England's reserve is of great value at the present." "It certainly is of the utmost value," comments ','The Scotsman" in its editorial columns. "The Bank of England only to-day sold bar gold valued at £785,023, of which no less than £775,000 is believed to have gone to Franco. This shipment to Franco completely outweighed the receipt by the bank of 250,000 sovereigns which came iv, and according to market belief was Argentine* gold. Gold is to arrive at the bank between now and the end of the year from Australia. The bullion is estimated at a value of approximately £4,000,000. Thus tho Dominions are rendering great assistance to the bank during a time when Continental nations are a drain ou its resources." . PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT. Mr. 0. D. Willoughby, in proposing the . toast of "The Visitors," with which was coupled the name of Mr AY. E, Doughty, at tho annual dinner in London of ' the City of. London Wholesale Linen Trade Association, referred to New Zealand, and said that if they had not tho 15 per. cent, preferential tariff from-New Zealand some of them in Great Britain would be very sick people. It was splendid, he said, that they could all trade within the Empire, and get preferential treatment. It. was not a question of politics—of tariff reform or anything of that sort—but a question of brother selling to brother, and it was a very good thing that they were doing it on a preferential basis. (Applause.) Mr. Doughty said that New Zealand had the distinction of giving a greater preference to Great Britain than any of the other Dominions, and in adopting that policy they were not actuated by any desire for gain for themselves. It is absolutely patriotism, declared Mr. Doughty, amid applause. There was a large attendance at the dinner, over which Mr. E. G. Cowley, chairman of tho association, presided. REPORTS OF DEPRESSION. The "British Export Gazette" has an article affirming that there are exaggerated reports of depression in Aew Zealand, and that'the half-yearly trade record shows a steady upward trend m imports of luxuries and

"Pessimism, indeed, is entirely out ot place," says the writer of the article, "for the fact that the country s primary industries are making'renewed progress is an assurance that tnc present upward trend of trade ml] continue. Possibly, owing to the lower prices now ruling in the world's markets, exports of butter, cheese, wool and meat may not bring in quito as much as ] as t season, but -that is no adequate reason for forecasting auy substantial decrease in individual buying power New avenues of employment, which will result in the circulation of wages, are being created as a result of progress with public works schemes, and altogether the position is sucli as to inspire confidence in all but the most pusillanimous. It might be added as a matter of interest, that in the half-year reviewed above, 451 per cent, of Xew Zealand's imports came SmS.^"'^19^"^-