ATJSTRALIAN BORROWING IN THE STATES.
A further point not without its effect upon the market for gilt-edged securities, and also, to some extent, upon the foreign exchanges, has been the announcement that for the first time in the history of the Empire the Commonwealth Government of Australia was raising a large loan in the United States. During the current year Australia has a vast amount of debt maturing, and a knowledge of that fact and expectations of consequent heavy borrowing here was not without its effect upon the gilt-edged market, which had already become overweighted with new loan flotations, and especially new Colonial Loans. Therefore, it was with some relief that the market learned that so far as the imme- diate future was concerned, the situation was likely to be met by Australia raising only about 25,000,000 in sterling form in this country and about 215,000,000 in dollar form in the United States. It is significant that the authorities see in the present situation signs that Colonial borrowings have exceeded our surplus of sabings available for export. The cause of that fact is undoubtedly to be found in the industrial depression and the great adverse trade balance as shown in the official figures. Therefore, we come back once again to the question of whether we are to be able by our industrial, and especially by our productive and manu- facturing activities, not only to pay for our imports but to provide a sufficient surplus to invest in those Foreign and Colonial Loans which have proved in years past such .a stimulus to trade 'activity itself.
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