Both shipbuilders, engineers and cotton manufacturers are loud in their belief that there is a better time coming. The Government orders for battleships have given work to miny thousands and a large number of firms are affected. A Cardiff steelworks for instance, which has been marking time for a considerable period, has received an order for plates for one of these ships, Darlington is supplying guna, and it is the same in many directions.
Cotton has not done so well as the coal and iron industries, owing it is said to instability in the price of raw material and absence of con-carted action between master-spinners and manufacturers. Even so the outlook is more hopeful,—home-trade is in a healthy state and overseas trade is improving.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.