VEXATIOUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1937, Page 11

VEXATIOUS.

trade restrictions. _ - , ORANGES AND POTATOES. PANDERING TO THE VOTER? (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 31. Mr. R. H. Nesbitt, who is Australia's Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, came back for Christmas last week, and he had naturally a great deal to say about trade conditions as affecting- the two countries. Among other things, he mentioned the encouraging fact that since tho Trade Commissioner's office was established over two years ago, trade between Australia and New Zealand has increased by over £2,000,000 a year. This is certainly satisfactory, and it helps one to imagine what developments might become possible if the present vexatious restrictions upon transTasman trade were swept away. Like all Australians who go to New Zealand and consider the relations between the two countries, Mr. Nesbitt came back to this question at last, and he had something interesting to say about the eternal fruit embargo. He reminded citrus growers here that New Zealand's recent decision to lift the embargo on oranges for a time has been due to two specific causes. One reason was the shipping strike on the Pacific Coast, which blocked the supply of C'alifornian oranges for the time; and he warned our fruit men that as soon as shipping facilities are back to normal the embargo on Victorian and New South "Wales oranges is likely to be reimposed. The other reason is the epidemic of infantile paralysis in the South Island, citrus fruit being an important factor in the treatment of this malady. Both these reasons are plainly of a temporary nature, and Mr. Nesbitt advised our growers to be prepared for the worst. They have not done so badly in the meantime, for in addition to 144,000 cases of oranges sent to Z>ew Zealand from South Australia—on whjcli there is no embargo—l4,ooo cases have gone to New Zealand this season from New South Wales and Victoria. It certainly seems a pity that a trade which is obviously beneficial to both parties should be foredoomed to a speedv decline. Before the Embargo. An interesting comment on the trade conditions discussed by Mr. Nisbett was supplied during Christmas week by a letter in the* "Sydney Morning Herald," written by the manager of the Griffith Producers' Co-operative Company. Griffith is one of the most successful and prosperous of the fruit growing centres in the Murrumbidgee irrigation area, and in 1932, the year in which the embargo was first imposed, the Producers' Co-operative Company sent to New Zealand 50,000 bushes of oranges, besides other fresh fruit. This season, taking advantage of the temporary lifting of the embargo, All is same companr sent over 8000 bushels (1000 cases) of Valencia oranges, which, of course, commanded a ready sale. The price received will give the grower a reasonable return for his fruit, besides tending to lift prices in tlje local market. But Mr. Mallinson, the manager of the Griffith. Producers' Co-operative Company, knows only too well that the benefits thus secured are but temporary, and he takes a gloomy view .of the future, unless some effective inducement can be offered to the New Zealand Government to lift the embargo altogether. One of the most interesting points in Mr. Mallinson's letter is his references to the efforts made by citrus growers here to open' up markets elsewhere. When the New Zealand embargo started in 1932 the growers, to make up for the loss of this market, shipped fruit to England, and even with the assistance of the bounty, prices were not payable and the United Kindom market, he says, can never replace the one lost in New Zealand.

The reason, of course, is the great distance to be traversed in sending Australian fruit Home. "Before our fruit gets into consumption in England," he continues, "it is practically two months off the tree. This is about the limit of the life of an orange, and conditions must always be favourable to enable the English consumer to . get tli6 fruit in good condition." It follows that, in Mr. Mallinson's opinion, ' "the New Zealand market, a few days away, is the logical outlet for Australia's surplus citrus fruit." Anxiety Among Growers. These facts explain the importance attached by our citrus growers to the embargo, and they indicate the anxiety that prevails hei;e among fruit men lest, through the operation of extraneous influences, they should lose permanently their golden chance of supplying New Zealand's demand for oranges. Mr. Mallinson has no doubts or delusions about the reasons for the embargo, or the difficulties in the way of removing It. He holds that the Federal Government has practically ruined Australia's citrus growers by its obstinate attitude over New Zealand potatoes during the past four years. He rejects contemptuously the plea that the exclusion of New Zealand potatoes from Australia is s'mply a safeguard against the invasion of disease. "Nobody for one moment believes that this is the legitimate reason," he says. '"Everybody knows that it is to protect the home market for the potato grower because, at the moment, he happens to command the most votes. This is what counts, and the citrus grower has been sacrificed in consequence, to kee pseats safe for certain members." In support of this view, he quotes General Heane, sent recently to New Zealand by the New South Wales Fruitgrowers' Federation, and who laid the whole blame for the deadlock on the Federal Government. He also quoted Mr. Savage, who, in a speech delivered in November, said frankly that the ..'question of removing the fruit embargo hinged upon another question—-"What can be done to overcome the embargo placed by the Australian Government on New Zealand potatoes." It is easy to understand the bitterness with which the Australian citrus grower regards the obstinate determination of the Federal Government to penalise him for the benefit of the potato growers of Tasmania and Victoria, and the resentment •o forcibly indicated in Mr. Mallinson s letter may possibly bear consequences disastrous to Mr. Lyons at the referendum ballot next month.