Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY', JULY 31, 1915. TRADE WITHIN THE EMPIRE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 2733, 31 July 1915, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY', JULY 31, 1915. TRADE WITHIN THE EMPIRE.

Some lime ago a proposition was made by the Wellington (Chamber of Commerce that all similar organisations in the Dominion should combine in a campaign having for its object the future restriction of New Zealand's trade to Great Britain and her Allies. The idea was enthusiastically taken up, but when the fervour of the origina/tors had spent its force the proposal seemed to fall flat, and nothing has been heard of; it for several months. This apparent apathy on!, a matter of such importance as British goods for British people iuelimvs us to the belief that, the statement of a delegate to the Kew Zealand Farmers' Union Conference, ut Wellington, that after the war is. over the people will resume their buying of German goods, will most likely be borne out. Many people, no doubt, will never again have business dealings with Germans, nor will they ever handle an article of food, clothing, or utility that has been made by German hands. J]ut the public have a notoriously short memory, aud where it is a

question of price it is a trait of human nature to buy in the cheapest market. It should be the Government's duty to prevent any possibility of traffic with Germans for at least a century. The British Empire is absolutely self-contained, and we have found by bitter, experience that our policy of free trade with other countries has resulted not only in helping to build up a nation which has been plotting for over 20 years to destroy us, but in depriving our own people of employment. For every shilling spent on foreign-made goods would have helped to provide work for a British tradesman. The stoppage of supplies of many lines previously supplied by Germany and Austria has resulted in similar goods, of much better quality, though slightly higher in price, being manufactured in Great Britain, and there will not be any need in the future for the resumption of . trade relations with those countries. Closely allied •with this subject of trading 1 with our own kith and kin is the alleged " saving" campaign that the public have been asked to take.part in. We are afraid that the organisers of this idea have not studied either political or domesti* economy from the groundwork. If they had, they would not counsel the people to spend less on food, and clothes, and amusement, because the inevitable outcome of such abstention would be to reduce the earnings of many thousands of British people in our own land and in other portions of the Empire. If by rigid economy for 12 months 10 families save, say, £50 that they would otherwise have spent, only those families are the gainers, while possibly four or iive other families are the poorer for the proportion of the £500 that 'would have been spent for the products of the industries their bread-winners are employed in. The State, also, loses by the transaction, for there would be an appreciable reduction in Customs revenue by virtue of the decrease in the purchase of dutiable artcles. Instead of the "saving'" scheme inculcating , habits of thrift, it would be. likely, if universally adopted at the present time, to result in a serious dislocation- of business. It would be folly, of course, to go to the other extreme, and for anyone to 1 become 'extravagant. But if we are to maintain the principle of i "Business as usual"—and particularly business with our own people—we should endeavour to adjust, our expenditure as near normal-lines as possible.