TARIFF BATTLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 126, 30 May 1934, Page 13

TARIFF BATTLE.

COUNTRY DEMANDS.

DR. PAGE CONTINUES CAMPAIGN. VALUE OF HOME MARKET. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 25. No one doubts the earnestness and honesty of Dr. Earle Pago, but the excessive enthusiasm of some of his followers has betrayed them into something very like adulation of their leader. A few weeks ago I mentioned a biographical sketch of Dr. Page's career, in which he was represented as a heroic figure combining the fine qualities of Lincoln, Julius Caesar and Alfred tho Great. To those who remember his unfortunate though wellmeant efforts to direct Australian fiscal policy and finance, such sycophantic flattery is a little annoying. Now we have Mr. C. L. Abbott, M.H.R. for Gwydir, protesting that Dr. Page "than whom no man has done more for his country, is being crucified on the cross of perverted public opinion." This is again rather annoying; and the "Telegraph" has assured Mr. Abbott that "there is very little public opinion about Dr. Page, except what he is at pains to create and attract towards himself." " Free Market" Demands. As a matter of fact, Dr. Page gets so incensed when he is discussing anybody's opinion or policy but his own that it is difficult to take him quite literally. Though he is supposed to be a fervid Imperialist, he said the other day that if Britain will not buy our products, she is not of much use to Australia and the Dominions; and he has been severely taken to task over this. The fact is that "a free market for primary products" has become sueli an obsession with him that he loses all sense of proportion when he talks about it. He had to be reminded the other day that even Major Elliot, British Minister of Agriculture, who is responsible for the quota policy, has already informed New Zealand that even the complete abolition of all her tariff's would not ensure the sale of her products on the English market. As to tho effect of any wholesale reduction of our tariffs here at the present time, Mr. Lyons this week warned us jtliat the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of workers and their families depends on the maintenance of a protectionist policy; and if our tariff's were lowered the workers in our secondary industries would lose employment, their purchasing power would disappear, and with it would vanish the best market for the primary products so dear to Dr. Pago and the Country party. The Best Market.

The Prime Minister stated recently that our domestic.market absorbs 70 per cent of tho total Australian production, and 55 per cent of all primary products. Wo consume in Australia 215,000,0001b of butter against 185,000,00011) sold to England, twice as much cheese, five times as much beef, and four times as much mutton and lamb as wo sell to England—and on the local markets these things fetch a far higher price than in Kngland. Tho value of fresh and dried fruit sold is 2* times the value obtained in England, and we sell only £1,000,000 worth of poultry and eggs to England against £7,500,000 worth sold here. To I us tho home market, as Adam Smith said long ago, is tho best market, and this is the market that Dr. Page would destroy by robbing the workers in our secondary industries of wages and purchasing power. However, Dr. Page has never yet given any proof that he has thought out a coherent fiscal policy. But he is unfortunately prone to denunciations and rash statements about agreements and promises; and of this tendency ho has given another unpleasant illustration this week. Alleged Promise by Mr. Lyons. Speaking at Denilquin on Monday, Dr. Page recurred again to one of his favourite themes—the alleged fiscal agreement between the Country party and the U.A.P.; but this time he gave it a most significant appendix. "Before tho Government was formed," he said, , "I believed that I had made an agreement with Mr. Lyons and Mr. Latham on the tariff policy. After the elections, I j discussed tho possibility of putting the agreement into effect, and Mr. Lyons said that it was impossible because of a later promise that had been made." No ' doubt Dr. Page believes this, though it , seems so improbable as to be almost incredible. However, Air. Lyons has al- , ready contradicted it in the most explicit terms. At Canberra last night ho said that while he had endeavoured to refrain from replying to the criticism directed against him by the Country party, this last statement by Dr. Page left him no alternative. "I would be failing in my duty to the people who elected the U.A.P. to office," said Mr. Lyons, "if even in the interests of unity I * allowed this statement to go unchallenged. I say emphatically that I I never at any time made such a statement to Dr. Page." Tho Prime Minister added that if Dr. Page believes this, "it is strange that he has never mentioned it till more than two years after the event.".