NEW ZEALAND TRADE

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18, 22 July 1919, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND TRADE

A REPLY TO COMPLAINTS

(IROII 6UR OWN CORRESPONDED!.) V^ : LONDON, 29th May.-V The Board of Trade Journal devotes a column or two to criticisms made by. the Wellington branch, of the New Zealand Association of British. Manufacturers and Agents on the attitude of Bri-' tish manufacturers to post-war trade. New Zealand, the Journal says, wants to trade with the United Kingdom, but' is obliged at present to trade with America and Japan. "A good deal of criticism was directed against British manufacturers on rather familiar lines. One suspects that soms of those who intend to speak at meetings collect good stories for some weeks beforehand, and, are not exacting in regard to their authenticity. Complaint was more seriously made that when, after the Armistice, agents in New Zealand communicated with their'principals in this country 'to ascertain the conditions upon which, they intended to prosecute their post-war.! trade in the Dominion,' the replies received were not very illuminating. It may have seemed reasonable on the other side of the world to address an inquiry like this to a country which' had been turned industrially upside-down, by the war, but the distracted/recipients" on this side probably found it exasperat-. ing. How could they specify 'conditions-' of post-war trade' at a time when the. supply and prices •of materials, the amount and cost of labour, and shipping. accommodation and freights were all un-' known and all incalculable? In Decem-' ber last simultaneous inquiries wareaddressed from New Zealand to a motor.-.!' car manufacturer in England and to an-. other in America; asking for 6pecific - questions concerning the delivery of cars! and spares. The replies were compared! to the disadvantage of the English mak-: ers. The American firm was prepared"; to do business at once—it had probably.never been taken off^car work—while! the English firm obviously manoeuvred: for delay until it could get back to its'■ peace-time. business. It is not just to conclude, from the results of inquiries made when manufacturers in this'coun-'.: try were quite unable to reply satisfac-! torily to them, that. British firms are-., indifferent to the New Zealand ■market-:'" and are unappreciative of the New Zea-!':' land conditions.

"It . happens—fortunately. . from one point of view, though perhaps unfortunately from another—that Mr. Dalton, the British Trade Commissioner, is' at present in the United Kingdom. He has already been able to correct, from personal contact with British manufacturers," "the erroneous impression that the New Zealand market is a matter of indifference to them. Mr: Dalton has, found a very ready disposition on the' part of British manufacturers to oper^ up trade with New Zealand. While :MrX Dalton is able, by being in this country during the transitional period, to inform himself personally of the attitude of British manufacturers, it is a disadvantage that he cannot be on both sides of the world at the same time."