in Mexican securities as a result of the adoption of a modified debt agreement in place of the unsuccessful scheme of 1922. On the other hand, marked weakness was again displayed by French bonds owing to the fall in the value of the franc. On the year, foreign Government stocks showed a rise of 04 per cent. Under the influence of declining traffic receipts and threats of labour trouble, home railway stocks were sadly depressed. The Ordinary stocks lost 24 per cent. of their value, Southern Deferred alone showing real resistance, and the prior charges depreciated only less seriously, falls of 15 per cent. and 7 per cent. being recorded in the Preference and Debenture stocks respectively. Conditions for British railway companies working in South America were favourable. There were active dealings at rising prices in artificial silk shares, and the prosperity of the companies working in the tobacco and brewing trades was reflected in the prices of their shares, a rise of 35 per cent. occurring in brewery stocks. Coal, iron, and steel shares, however, were again weak, their values falling, on an average, by 20 per cent. In the case of Vickers, Limited, a drastic reconstruction of the capital account was effected. Rubber shares were buoyant, and many rose by 100 or 200 per cent. in the course of the year, the average advance of the shares included in the Bankers' Magazine calculations being 79 per cent. Rubber, at one time, touched 4s. 8d. per lb. Tea shares, which were the strongest market in the House in 1924, showed a fall of 14 per cent. in 1925. While oil shares seldom experienced great activity, they nevertheless record an appreciation of more than 20 per cent. South African gold mining shares were affected by the disappearance of the premium on gold, but diamond shares improved on the formation of a new syndicate to regulate sales, and there was sporadic activity in the shares of companies reputed to own properties in the newly-discovered "platinum belt."

The chief features of our overseas trade were an advance of 3 per cent. in imports and a similar decline in British exports. A rise of 58,858,6261. in the adverse balance brought the total up to 395,360,790., imports amounting to 1,322,858,1677. (an increase of 45,419,0231.), exports to 773,086,410l. (a decrease of 27,880,4271.), and re-exports to 154,410,9677. (an increase, largely due to the rise in rubber prices, of 14,440,8241.). The increase in the adverse balance was due to abnormal monetary factors (chief among which was the rise in sterling due to the return to gold, which stimulated imports and discouraged exports), and it accrued entirely in the first half of the year. In the second half, when sterling had attained stability in terms of gold, the adverse balance was materially lower. Shipments of coal in 1925 were 21,600,000l. lower than in 1924, those of iron and steel fell by 6,400,000l., and those of woollen and worsted yarns and manufactures by 8,800,000l. There were advances of 4,300,000l. and 5,800,000l. in exports of machinery and vehicles respectively. Of the increase in imports, 25,000,000l. occurred under the head of raw materials and 20,000,000l. consisted of manufactured articles.

The Board of Trade calculated that the country had a favourable trade balance in 1925 of 28,000,000l. representing assets available for investment overseas as compared with 63,000,000l. in 1924 and 153,000,000l. in 1923. The figures are as follows:

The figures of oversea issues are taken from the monthly Review of the Midland Bank.

In face of declining prices and exports, the coal industry, in 1925, proved unequal to the burden placed upon it by the national wages agreement of 1924. In the seven months ended July there was a commercial loss on the industry as a whole of about 1s. per ton. In this desperate financial condition, the owners served notices to terminate the 1924 agreement. With owners and workers alike intractable, the Government intervened, and by the grant of a subsidy prevented a stoppage in August. The cost to the State for the five months, August-December, is estimated at 11,900,000l., and the net commercial deficit on the operation of the industry during the year, including this sum, was over 12,000,000l., against a profit of 13,300,000l. in 1924. Production amounted to approximately 244,700,000 tons (against 267,100,000 tons in 1924); home consumption was 173,400,000 tons (against 180,000,000), and exports amounted to about 71,300,000 tons (against about 85,000,000 tons in 1924), shipments to France and the North Sea markets declining by roughly 10,000,000 tons. The course of prices was steadily downwards, and the year's average pit head price was 16s. 9d. (against 18s. 3d. in 1924). The percentage of workers unemployed, which stood at 7.9 at the beginning of the year, touched 23-2 in September.

Severe depression overshadowed most branches of the British shipping industry last year, the one trade that fared well being the North Atlantic passenger service. There was a substantial increase in the volume of tonnage unemployed, and freight rates showed substantial declines, practically the only ones to be maintained or increased being those for coal from this country. The depression was such that in the summer the owners approached the representatives of the seamen with a view to obtaining some reduction of wages. The two parties to the discussion agreed that the increases granted in 1924 should be withdrawn, but many of the men repudiated their representatives' settlement, and a prolonged

strike, most severe in Australian ports (where trouble lasted from the end of August to the beginning of December) occurred. The losses caused, which were on a large scale, were aggravated by the fact that foreign ships were allowed free transit. At the end of the year a strike against a proposed reduction of wages began among the wireless operators.

Shipbuilding conditions were again unsatisfactory, the depression of the shipping trade and high production costs discouraging the purchase of new ships. The tonnage constructed in Great Britain and Ireland during the year was 1,084,633, or nearly half of the world production. While ships launched in Great Britain were 355,250 tons below the 1924 figure, foreign launchings increased by 300,900 tons. There was an increase in British launchings of motor ships and of vessels fitted for the use of oil fuel. At the end of the year the work in hand here amounted to 885,000 tons-the lowest figure since 1909 whereas in foreign yards there were 1,184,500 tons under construction. To inquire into the problem of costs of production, a conference was set up on which the Employers' Federation and the trade unions were represented. The inquiry was still in progress at the end of the year.

According to the estimate of the National Federation of Iron and Steel Manufacturers, last year's production of pig-iron was 6,236,000 tons, and that of steel 7,397,000 tons. These figures show a reduction of 1,000,000 tons of pig-iron and of 804,000 tons of steel compared with the 1924 figures. There was a continuous fall in prices of iron and steel, with diminished exports and increased imports, the former falling by 120,000 tons to 3,731,000 tons, and the latter rising by 291,000 to 2,721,000 tons. The following table compiled by the Manufacturers' Federation shows the position of the industry month by month during the year :—

At the end of the year there were some signs of improvement. An application for protection under the Safeguarding of Industries Act was refused by a Cabinet Committee.

Figures of new life assurance again showed an increase over the preceding year. The Board of Trade Committee appointed to consider what changes might be desirable in the Assurance Companies Act, 1909, recommended, in an interim report, that companies which transact reinsurance business only, whether fire, accident, or employers' liability, ought not to be treated as doing these classes of business for the purpose of the 1909 Act. The Government announced their intention to introduce legislation giving effect to the recommendations of this interim report. For marine underwriters 1925 was an unsatisfactory year, owing to great competition and consequent low rates. There was also keen competition in fire insurance business. The Times estimate of home fire losses was 7,683,000l., an increase of 157,000l. over the 1924 figure, but a decline of 3,105,000l. on the total for 1923. In North America, where British offices transact a large business, fire losses were again exceptionally heavy, the total for the first 11 months being $330,000,000 (against $333,000,000 in 1924).

LAW.

DURING 1925, with the exception of the King's Bench Division, considerable progress was made with the reduction of arrears of work. In the Court of Appeal a stage was reached which ensured the hearing of an appeal in the term following that in which it was entered. In the Chancery Division the Courts kept well abreast of their work, and in the Probate and Admiralty Division, owing to the appointment of a third permanent judge, the result of influential agitation, by the end of the Michaelmas sittings the lists were exhausted and the two puisne judges were detailed to assist the King's Bench. Even in the last-mentioned division there was some improvement, but at the end of the year four months was still the average period between setting down and hearing in the case of actions for trial.

Three reports of considerable importance were issued by their respective committees during the year. Owing to the increase of fraudulent trading and bankruptcy since the war, the Board of Trade desired information as to further amendments of the Act of 1914, and in their report many useful recommendations were made by the committee which should assist the discovery and punishment of offences. Poor Persons procedure was reconsidered, and a scheme evolved which adopted the principles of further decentralisation of the work, and placing its administration in the hands of the legal profession. At the end of the year an exceedingly important document was issued by the Home Office departmental committee on sexual offences against young persons. As was only to be expected, there was a division of opinion on two points of prime interest, namely, the age of consent and the defence of reasonable belief. Recent cases have shown the inadequacy of the maximum sentences for offences of this description, and a revision of this branch of the criminal law is probable in the near future.

There were several matters of considerable legal importance that came into prominence during the year. An attempt was made by the executive to obtain a blank cheque in the matter of search warrants, and a general right to search was sought where there was suspicion that an indictable offence was about to be committed. At the last stage of the Criminal Justice Bill, which was passed into law in December, the Home Secretary discovered that it was a very contentious clause," and it was dropped accordingly. Again, on a free vote in the House of Commons, the grand jury was retained at Quarter Sessions as well as at Assizes; and the presumption of coercion of a married woman by her husband, when an offence was committed by her in his presence, was