The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1933. FARMERS' INTERESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 190, 14 August 1933, Page 6

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

MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1933. FARMERS' INTERESTS.

For the cause that lacks assista7ice, For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the d'stance', And- the good '(hat toe van do.

Dominion and foreign producers alike are feeling tlie increasing pressure of! the Ottawa regulations for reducing meat imports into the United Kingdom. Under the Ottawa agreements Britain was given the right to regulate imports not only of beef, whether chilled or frozen, but also of mutton, lamb and pig products, and the policy was described at the time as a move to assist the British farmer and to give the Dominions an expanding share in the British market. Briefly, the aim was to reduce meat imports by quarterly stages from the beginning of January, 1933, until at the end of June, 1934, the shipments into the United Kingdom should be only Co per cent of what they were in 1931-32. The agreements provided, also, for consultation between Britain and the Dominions to consider what measures should be taken to improve the price outlook and secure more orderly marketing. Within three months of concluding the Ottawa Conference a beginning was made with restrictions on New Zealand 'and Australian meat. Our frozen beef shipments are now curtailed to the extent of 20 per cent, and in the last quarter of the year none is to be sent from this country. Compared with this, the limitations on chilled beef, of which the Argentine supplies the lion's share of the British market, appear moderate. There will be a strong inducement, therefore, to develop the chilled beef trade between New Zealand and London, and the policy at_ Home is calculated to force all Empire countries to resort to the chilling process.

The interests of the British farmer, as a meat producer, should be adequately safeguarded by restriction of tho present magnitude, and possibly it is the taste of the benefits that has made him clamorous for quotas on dairy' produce. The British farmers' organisation, which regards NewZealand and Australia as the chief offenders in causing weakness in the butter market, .now suggests that if this Dominion insists on all its rights the result will be ruinous for Home producers. This is not admitted in New Zealand, and a representative from Britain has been invited, therefore, to visit this country. This is a wise move. No doubt there is a good deal of ignorance in New Zealand about English conditions, but it is possible that English ignorance of our conditions is even greater. A frank talk on the spot between the English delegate and our own producers might clear the way to a better understanding on both sides. It has been suggested that an even better arrangement would have been a round-table conference of farmers of the Empire. Meanwhile the rise in. butter must be taking something off the edge of farmers' anxiety.