INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 103, 3 May 1935, Page 6

INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

In a statement to the Press, Mr. A. E. Mander, secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation, went to .a good deal of trouble to impress upon readers the obvious fact that whatever Britain buys from New Zealand in primary products she must of necessity pay for in goods or services, and also whatever New Zealand b%ys from Great Britain she in turn must pay for in goods or services. Mr. M&nder's figures, therefore, get us nowhere; they are only the playthings°of those who wish to draw a red herring across our path. These payments, however,- may be suspended by either party investing the proceeds of their sales with the other, and charging interest on the loans so created. New Zealand, for instance, leaves the proceeds of the sale of her primary products in Great Britain, where the money is invested, from time to time in the short-term money market, earning the magnificent sum of 1 per cent interest, while it is costing the New Zealand people 25 per cent in New Zealand, showing a net loss of 24 per cent on the total amount of some £30,000,000, £17,500,000 representing sterling assets so held by the Reserve Bank, and £12,500,000 representing sterling assets of the commercial banks. One marvels at the patience of the New Zealand people, and we wonder how long they will submit to such mismanagement of their international trade. We are glad to note the conversion, of Mr. Mander to one of the great principles of international trade, that, in spite of everything else, the goods produced in one country are paid for by goods produced in another, and therefore the production of those goods creates employment in both countries. If Mr. Mander could only persuade his executive to agree with him, we would be very glad to join them in trying to persuade the Government to agree with us both. We do not know whether Mr. Mander knows it or not, but in the principle ho supports he really finds the solution to the British quota policy against New Zealand beef and butter, just as Sir Robert Peel found it a hundred years ago—that the only counter to high tariffs levied against a country was to encourage free imports from the offending country. By such a policy. Peel, Gladstone, Bright and Disraeli made Britain the workshop of the world, established the British mercantile marine, founded the British Empire as we know it to-day, and sustained the whole world when our civilisation rocked and swayed in the convulsions of a great war. J. HISLOP, Chairman, U.K. Manufacturers' and N.Z. Representatives' Association. Auck. branch.