BUTTER FOR BRITAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 98, 27 April 1932, Page 4

BUTTER FOR BRITAIN.

BARGAINING AT OTTAWA. DATRY FARMERS WANT PREFERENCE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) MORRISVILLE, Tuesday. "Whether the present British tariff of I 10 per cent on butter from foreign sources iis to be continued after November depends on what preference our Government is prepared to give to Britain at the Ottawa Conference," said Mr. J. E. Leeson, chairman of directors of the Morrinsville Co-operative Dairy Company, when addressing a meeting of about 200 suppliers of the company on the question of trade with Britain and Canada. '"Britain is receiving our butter as no other country is, and is advertising it at the British taxpayer's expense, through the Empire Marketing Board, and has more recently put a 10 per cent tax on foreign butter. However, that preference is assured only until November 15. Its continuation depends on what happens at the conference. Until our Government is prepared to give something to Britain in return we will not be able to get Britain to adopt the quota system by which the amount of butter that foreign countries could send to Britain would be restricted." Mr. F. W. Seifert, vice-chairman of the company, declared that unless New Zealand farmers, through their country's delegates, "made a great noise at the Ottawa Conference they would get left." Britain was out to foster trade within the Empire, but it was ridiculous for our delegates to go Home and ask for everything and give nothing. It was not enough to raise the tariff on foreign imports; New Zealand would have to lower the present tariff on goods front Britain. It was a pity th New Zealand delegates had not been selected long ago and given plenty of time to decide on a common policy that would assist in finding markets abroad for farmers' produce. Mr. A. Topham, president of the Morrinsville branch of the company, and a supplier of the company, urged the importance of sending men to the conference who could speak for the farmers. It was no use sending city men, who would look at questions only from the viewpoint of secondary industries. The following resolution was then carried unanimously:—"That the Government be urged to make such concessions in the tariff on British goods as will ensure a continuation of the British preference to New Zealand produce after November 15, when the present preference expires, and that the Government be urged to send to Ottawa only such delegates as are in full sympathy with the primary producers." The movers of this resolution insisted that a continuation of preference from Britain on dairy products was vital to the welfare of the country generally and of the dairy industry in particular.