Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1928. TRADE WITH JAPAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 174, 25 July 1928, Page 6

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

WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1928. TRADE WITH JAPAN.

For the cause that lackt assistant*, For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do-

From the standpoint of the international .jurist it is no doubt interesting to observe that the commercial treaty just arranged between the Governments of New Zealand and Japan is the first treaty ever signed by New Zealand by virtue of "the sovereign powers" which for such purposes the Dominion undoubtedly possesses. It is, however, a much more important fact that this treaty will confer substantial commercial benefits upon us, and that the concessions embodied in it have been granted by Japan without insisting on any material advantage in return. Japan is merely to receive ''most favoured nation'' treatment as before, and she undertakes to lower her import duty on butter to the extent of Ad per lb as a preferential rebate to our producers. It should hardly be necessary to point out that any improvement in our position in Eastern markets must react beneficially upon our industrial prospects. For some time past Canadian butter has been admitted into Japan on a lower scale of duty than our own, and this anomaly is now rectified. So far the value of New Zealand butter exported to Japan has not assumed any great prominence in our trade returns. In 1927 it was valued at only £22,430. But even at this it represented a large proportion of our total trade in dairy produce with the East, which in 1926 amounted to £53,000. It is to be hoped that our pastoralists will seize on the opening provided by this treaty to develop their Japanese market more vigorously than before. For there is no doubt that we have made very inadequate use of our opportunties in this respect hitherto. The other day we quoted statistics showing that in 1926 New Zealand's total exports to Eastern countries were valued at £320,000, while in that year Australia exported to the East no less than £21,000,000 worth of goods. The dairy produce sent by Australia to China, Malaya and Japan in that year alone amounted to over £2,000,000, and these figures may serve to give some idea of the attractive prospects awaiting us in Eastern markets if we have enough energy and enterprise to exploit them in the most advantageous way. But while the prospects of commercial profit fully justify efforts in this direction, it must be clearly understood that New Zealand's public policy is not to be modified in any other important respect to purchase such concessions. In this present instance Japan is satisfied with the confirmation of her claim to equality of treatment with other countries, under the "most favoured nation" clause. But the fact that the Japanese Consul-General in Wellington, in his comment on the treaty, is leported to have mentioned the question of immigration, should be noted. It should be made perfectly clear to the Japanese Government that under no conceivable conditions would New Zealand accept any form of commercial concession as a basis for modifying the restrictions imposed on Oriental immigration.