REPORT OF DAIRY COMMISSION

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21334, 29 November 1934, Page 10

REPORT OF DAIRY COMMISSION

♦- LONDON COMMENTS IMPORTANCE REALISED | SYMPATHETIC CRITICISM (rilOU OUR OWN CORRKSFONDEKT.) LONDON, October 26. The brief cabled statement regarding the report of the commission appointed to enquire into the difficulties of the dairy industry in New Zealand has prompted certain comments in the editorial columns of "The Times" and the "Morning Post." "The Times" says that the findings are so important as to "ramify, so to put it, from the office into the Ministry of Agriculture, the Board of Trade, the Ministry of Labour, and even the Foreign Office."

On the subject of debt interest payment—"the ability to meet these; obligations depends upon the ability of the Dominion to sell her products"—the writer continues: "No exception can be taken to this demand. If New Zealand is to pay her debts, she must have a corresponding favourable balance in her visible trade with her creditor. This v: elementary, and applies to many ether countries, the Argentine, for example, as well, though it is oftei overlooked by rough-and-ready enthusiasts for reciprocal trade balances."

The writer quotes that part of the report which speaks of the "flooding of the United Kingdom market by Ihe dumping of subsidised produce from the northern hemisphere and from Australia.". He says the report "accepts apparently as inevitable the decision to restrict imports, and wishes the Dominion Government to concentrate its efforts upon obtaining the best terms possible for its producers. It contends that New Zealand has ah equitable claim for special preference not only over foreign countries, but also over the other Dominions, both because of the low tariff which she imposes on imports from Great Britain and also because she does not dump her produce on the British market with the help of subsidies. Hitherto no claim of this kind has been advanced by any Dominion, owing to the general feeling that it would be invidious for the British Government to discriminate between different parts of the oversea Empire. It will be interesting to see how the claim for preferential treatment and the reasons advanced in support of it are regarded by the other Dominions." Conflict of Tendencies On the subject of conferences between representatives of the Dominions and the Home Country, "The Times" says that even the most perfect machinery, for consultation will not produce the desired results unless each Government brings to the discussion a clear idea or its own economic aims, of the balance it wishes to strike between various branches of production and between national self-sufficiency and interEmpire and international trade. In most of the Dominions there seems to be a similar conflict of tendencies to that in Great Britain, and a similar indecision in applying the criterion embodied in the Ottawa agreements. "Yet it is surely plain," says the writer in conclusion, "that national production, whether agricultural or secondary, cannot be dovetailed into a group system until it is known what branches of production are of special importance to each member of the group and to what extent other less important branches can be developed without prejudice to the major interest." Increase of New Zealand Imports The "Morning Post" concentrates on the complaints of dumping from the northern hemisphere and Australia. "The statement," it says, "hardly does justice to the enormous increase of New Zealand supplies m the British market during recent years. In the first nine months of this year imports of butter from NewZealand were 10 per cent, larger than in the same period of last year, and 100 per cent, greater than in 1929. For the first time in history they actually exceeded the imports from Denmark, so that New Zealand has now become our largest single supplier. Similarly, her share of the British market for imported cheese has risen from 70 to 77 per cent, since 1929.

"It is no doubt true that prices have fallen by more than half during these five years and that New Zealand is receiving in 1934 a much reduced return in money from a much larger volume of deliveries. It is also true that Britain is buying 50 per cent, more butter in 1934 than in 1929, and that steps might perhaps have been taken to secure to New Zealand a still larger share of this increase than she has actually had. But when every allowance is made for these factors, it nevertheless remains that New Zealand has been doing very well in the British market. "Legitimate Grievance" "Unfortunately, we have entered into a whole series of engagements which practically bind us to grant the foreigner a proportionate share of any expansion of our market, thereby substantially limiting New Zealand's opportunity. That is a legitimate source of grievance which we ought to assure New Zealand of our intention to rectify as soon as those treaties expire. In the meanwhile, we ought, in consultation with the representatives of the Dominion, to cast about for the ways and means of so adjusting our general policy in the matter of agricultural supplies as to assist her out of the serious crisis to which the Royal Commission directs attention."