A Shortsighted Policy.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16204, 6 May 1918, Page 6

A Shortsighted Policy.

We hope the Government will take a much broader view of the question of restricting tho importation of Cahadian and American apples than the New Zealand Fruitgrowers' Federation appears to have done at its annual conference. A remit from the Stoke Association asking the Government to restrict the importation of apples during the war was adopted, apparently without discussion—certainly without due thought and consideration. At another phase of the conference great stress was laid on the importance uf opening up oversea markets for New ! Zealand apples after the war. Obviously the greatest scope for our export trade is to be found in Canada and the United States of America, where there is a very large apple-eating population, able to take copious supplies from here seeing that the seasons are opposite, and our shipments would arrive when locally-grown apples were scarce. This being so, what folly to start ott now to antagonise the public, and especiallr the fruitgrowers, of these two great countries, by attempting to shut ofF their fruit which arrives in our period of greatest scarcity. What makes tho folly moro conspicuous is tho fact that American and Canadian shipments are bonnd to bo restricted in any case by the dearness of freight and scarcity of cargo space. The New Zealand fruitgrowers, if we are to judge l>r the action of the Federation, are scarcely able to look beyond tho tips of their noses. The Australian growers, much moro clear-headed and far-seeing, actually stopped the Commonwealth Government from taking steps similar to those advocated by the New Zealand Federation, because they saw such a course was bound to he injurious to the fruitgrowing industry by arousing a spirit of retaliation among those who ought to be our best customers. We can only hope that the New Zealand Government will save the New Zealand fruitgrowers from themselves. From a broader point of view such a narrow-minded policy as that advocated at Auckland would be a mistake. We are, most of us, agreed that we ought to do everything possible to foster trade within the Empire as an integral part of our after-the-war policy. It is a pity someone did not put this point of vi ew before tho New Zealand Fruitgrowers' : Federation.