The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo. TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1925. NEW ZEALAND'S MARKETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 161, 10 July 1928, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo.

TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1925. NEW ZEALAND'S MARKETS.

For the cause that lack* assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the diatanoe, And the good that toe can do.

Last Friday the Hon. A. McLeod warned the House that it is impossible to extend settlement in this country on a small scale beyond a certain point because, in regard to some of the more important industries developed on small holdings, "we are right up against saturation point." The Minister made his position a little clearer by referring specifically to poultry, small fruit, and the pig industry, but he reiterated that we cannot expect much expansion in these directions "unless we can extend our outside markets." While we think that the Minister of Lands takes perhaps an unduly pessimistic view of

our economic prospects in these particular respects, he has performed a public service by drawing attention to the limited number of markets which Ave actually possess.

In the latest bulletin prepared by the Canterbury College Economics Department for the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce it is pointed out that Britain alone buys nearly SO per cent of our exports, and that Australia, Canada, Bvitain and the United States collectively purchase 94J per cent of all the products that we send abroad. Compared with Australia our economic position in this respect is weak. For Britain, the United States, Canada and New Zealand take together only 54 per cent of Australia's exports, while the rest of the

world takes the remaining 46 per cent. This, of course, means that Australia, having a greater number and variety of markets than New Zealand, has a better chance of avoiding serious losses through a "slump" in any one of them, and has also better opportunities for diversifying and extending her export trade. It is true that the revival now in pi-ogress in British trade and industry may improve our prospects indefinitely in that direction, and the opinion of the leading commercial authorities in the Argentine, that "within the next few years the United States will perforce be importing fresh meat on an ever-increasing scale," opens up an attractive outlook for us in the New World as well. But the fact remains that this country has been dependent on too small a number of regular customers. Wo are, of course, well aware of the difficulties that confront a relatively young and poor competitor endeavouring to force his way into markets already occupied by wealthier and better equipped rivals. But we have always maintained that it is possible for NewZealand to extend its export trade in directions as yet inadequately exploited, and the example set by Australia should certainly give us encouragement. In 1926 New Zealand's exports to Asiatic countries were valued at only £320,000, but. Australia's exports to the East were valued at over £21,000,000. Nor can wo console ourselves with the reflection that Australia has an advantage over us here in the number and variety of her products, for her most valuable exports to the East arc staple products of our own. In 1926 the dairy produce sent by New Zealand to the East was valued at only £53,000. But Australia that year sent to China, Japan and Malaya butter worth £ 800,000, and preserved milk and cream valued at £1,335,000, as well as meats and leather valued at £1,000,000. Of course, Australia is nearer than New Zealand to these markets, but these figures prove that there exists in the Pacific a great and growing demand for some of our staple products, which suggests that the "point of saturation" gloomily predicted by the Minister of Lands may be deferred for an indefinite time to come.