DIFFICULT TASK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 130, 4 June 1935, Page 7

DIFFICULT TASK.

EMPIRE PROBLEM.

Fall in Meat Consumption

Perplexing,

BRITISH MINISTER'S VIEW.

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph-Copyright) (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON", June 3. The New Zealand Society tendered a lunch in honour of Mr. G. W. Forbes and Mr. J. G. Coates at the Savoy Hotel. Sir James Parr presided. Mr, Walter Elliot, British Minister of Agriculture, giving the toast of New Zealand, compared his position at such a gathering to that of Daniel in the lions' den, except that Daniel's task was relatively simple,- inasmuch as there was not enough meat to go round.

Referring to the meat negotiations, Mr. Elliot said: "Our feet are now set upon the road which will lead to a successful solution. The problem of the primary industries is to increase consumption. We are faced with the specially stubborn and intractable problem of beef, because consumption has fallen.

"A Government with so many problems on its hands cannot afford to devote as much time as has been devoted to the detailed questions of foodstuffs. Some machinery is necessary to deal with the question. This great problem concerns me day and night. It will require our attention for many years. I could not ask for better collaborators than Mr. Forbes, Mr. Coates and Sir James Parr."

Mr. Forbes said he hoped Mr. Elliot would be gratified by Xcw Zealand's reduced exports of meat beginning in 1935 compared with last' year.

Mr. Coatcs drew the attention of Mr. Walter Runciman, President of the Board of Trade, to the greater increase of British exports to the Dominions than to foreign countries, and asked if it was too much to hope for a preferential development of trade within the Empire to bo considered.