AN AUCKLAND REQUEST

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 172, 21 April 1928, Page 17

AN AUCKLAND REQUEST

TRADE COMMISSIONER IN CANADA , Dominion Special Service. Auckland, April 19. A suggestion that the time had come for appointing a New Zealand Trade Commissioner in Canada was made to the Prime Minister last July by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Coates replied that the proposal had been under consideration for some time, and he was awaiting further developments. At to-day’s meeting of the council of the chamber the president (Mr. 11. ,T. Merritt) reported that he had written to Mr. Coates asking if further developments had taken place, tut so far no reply had come to hand. To show what good reason there was for appointing a Trade Commissioner, Mr. Merritt mentioned that : n 1909, the year prior to the appointment of the Canadian Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, imports from Canada .were £198,000, and exports to' Canada £lBl,OOO. ’ln the following year the appointment -was made, and although the New Zealand market represented to Canada only about one-ninth of What the Canadian market represented to New Zealand to-day, subsequent iignres showed that trade from Canada to New Zealand had increased much more rapidly than trade in the reverse direction. Compared wjtli the imports of £198,000 and exports of £lBl,000 in 1909, the totals last year were £2,719,000 and £1,667,000 respectively, and the averages for the three-years 1925-27 were respectively £3,352,000 and £981,000. Considering that Canada had deemed it worth while to appoint a Commissioner when she was selling New Zealand only £198,000 worth of goods yearly, it, seemed, absurd to suggest that New Zealand should not reciprocate when iier- exports to Canada had reached £1,667,000 , a year.