INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21255, 29 August 1934, Page 12

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

GOVERNMENT'S ATTITUDE NEED FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY EMPHASISED FFrom Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, August 28. That the Government is wrongly leaning towards the principle of international trade is the opinion of Mr D. G. Sullivan (Lab., Avon), who said in the House of Representatives to-day that New Zealand should look forward to a large measure of self-sufficiency if the Dominion was to retain many of the advantages it enjoyed at present. Mr Sullivan developed his argument against international trade when the Minister for Customs (the Bt. Hon. J. G. Coates) asked him if he did not agree with what the Government was doing. He said Mr "Walter Elliot, the British Minister .for Agriculture, had made it clear that internationalism, in trade at Jeast, had gone for ever in the extent it obtained in post-war and preelepression years. Mr Elliot had proved that the greatest influence on tfrade was not the policies of governments but the developments of science, which had brought manufacturers to the doorsteps of countries which had previously relied on .Imports. Britain itself, the greatest country in the world, had been forced to provide for its agriculture. Did not this appeal to the Government as a good reason for the development of the industrial side ©f New Zealand life? Mr Coates: Are we not gradually developing our industrial life? Mr Sullivan: If thai, is so, it is in spite of the Government, and not because of it. Apparently the Minister for Customs and the Prime Minister had accepted the statement that industries were developing in spite of the Government, on the argument that this ■would make them strong. Mr Coates: They will be hardy children when they grow up, will they not? Later, Mr Coates said that Mr Sullivan hat continue 1 to build up a Strong case for low tariffs by saying that if industries could flourish under such a system they must be sound. Mr Sullivan retorted by arguing that if Australia could provide additional employment for her population by assisting her industries, the same thing could be done here—if the Government refused to do this, it was "committing a social crime • gainst the people.''