CANADIAN-N.Z. TRADE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29112, 26 January 1960, Page 15

CANADIAN-N.Z. TRADE

Substantial Drop

Noted

(New Zealand. Press Association) DUNEDIN, January 25.

Trade between Canada and New Zealand is dropping substantially. Exports last year from New Zealand to Canada fell by £BOO,OOO, and Canada’s exports to New Zealand fell by £lm. These figures were given in Dunedin today by Mr G. R. Heasman, High Commissioner for Canada. He said that Canada in 1957 had exported £6.6m worth of goods to New Zealand. In 1958 it was only £6m, and last year it was down to £sm. In 1957, New Zealand had sent £4.4m worth of goods to Canada. It had dropped to £4.lm in 1958, and last year to £3.3m. He felt that New Zealand should exploit more the “great market” in Canada for lamb. New Zealand lamb was cheap, and in 1958 had comprised about a quarter of Canada’s imports from New Zealand. Mr Heasman ranked 1959 as one of Canada’s greatest years. Right through the year economic conditions had improved from the slight recession which had existed in 1958. Much of the country’s “wonderful progress” he attributed to immigration. Two million of Canada’s 18m people were immigrants, and migrants made up a quarter of Toronto’s population. One hundred thousand new settlers had arrived last year. British migrants made up about 28 per cent, of the total, and Canada wanted more from the United Kingdom. “Immigration seems to depend on two things—poor conditions at Home, and good prospects abroad,” he said. “At present there is full employment in the United Kingdom and most of Europe. Under these conditions people are not so likely to migrate.”