BRITISH GOODS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 22, 26 January 1929, Page 8

BRITISH GOODS.

From time to time figures are made avail* able showing the amount and destination of New Zealand's exports, and even a cursory inspection of those figures suffice* to show bow the great bulk of our export* goes to Great Britain. For instance, for eleven months ended November 30 last exports from New Zealand totalled £51,805,163. Of this amount no less than £37,414,151 went to Great Britain, £3,207,837 went to Australia and £2,051,427 to Canada. Unemployment or slackness of I trade in the Old Country must therefore have a marked influence on the returns New Sealane receives from her exports, particularly those of feodstuffa. Apart from any consideration of fair play, loyalty or reciprocity, is it not downright bad business for the Jfew Zealand public to give the support it does to. products of foreign countries when the purchase of manufactures of the United Kingdom materially assists prosperity in the countrr peopled by the customers of New Zealand? With the successful marketing of our primary products absolutely dependent on the industrial activity and commercial prosperity of Greet Britain, surely it is a pernicious, short-sighted policy for the public of this country to purchase any commodity other than those that are manufactured by the people who purchase and consume Jfew Zealand exports. When Britain, was in the throes of post-war reconstruction it may have been possible to criticise some of her manufactures as not being as well suited to Dominion requirements as those of certain. foreign countries that had not suffered the same war disorganisation as Great Britain. But that state of affairs has long since beea rectified. Manufactures of Great Britain to-day take second place to none. Yet it is obvious that large sums of money are leaving the Dominion and going to countries that are not interested in our national welfare nor our primary products. It ie all very well for New Zeilanders to rejoice over the price of wool cr butter or etoek, but while doing so it is as well t* remember that good prices are only possible, ao long as the work people of Great Britain «W • Rood measure of employment; let industrial prosperity falter in Great Britain •ed only too quickly will it be reflected in the priees paid for New Zealand produce. Let ns all support the country which supports us—* if only because it fc '-food t.ueiqess." FROrNKW ZEALAND.