IMPERIAL PREFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 129, 28 November 1923, Page 5

IMPERIAL PREFERENCE

EFFECT UPON HOMELAND

"SOMETHING FOR NOTHING."

Discussing the subject of Imperial preference in his address before the annual meeting this morning, Mr, T. S. Weston, president of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, said it was not the simple matter some people might think it was. England had sacrificed her agricultural industries in order to feed at the cheapest possible rate a large manufacturing population. To ask her to increase food prices by imposing preferential duties was a request which she had in the past refused her own agriculturists. Inasmuch as the colonies afc present could not supply England with all the meat, wheat, and dairy produce she required, the colonial _ supplies would be less than the English demands: A preferential duty upon these imports from foreign countries would have to be faced by the English consumer. As there could be only one price in a market for articles of the same kind and similar quality, the inev; itable result of imposing preferential duties upon food would be a strong tendency to increase the prices of these to' the English consumer. The latter would have to pay in order that the present prices of colonial rural lands should be either increased or maintained. "It is true," he said, "that the colonies are prepared to grant preference on English manufactured goods, but this is subject to the clear condition that this preference should not interfere with any tariff in favour of local manufactures, and • the strong, tendency is for this preference to British goods to cost the colonial consumer nothing. The colonial demand for" English goods, even to the exclusion of foreign goods, would not be equal to what the English manufacturers could supply. Hence, the supply being _ greater than the demand, the competition between English firms would prevent the amount of the preferential duty being added to the price. The colonial demand for Imperial preference means, therefore, asking Great Britain to give the colonies something which, in all probability, will impose upon her an increased cost of living in exchange for something which will cost the colonies nothing. Tb.e same argument applies to the suggestions of shipping and other subsidies. These have to be paid for out of the British revenue, and hence, In part, by British manufacturers. Taxation .is an item in their cost of production in reducing which their one hope of salvation lies. "The attitude of the colonial Premiers at the recent Conference is in striking contrast to that of the late Right Hon. R. J. Sedddn, when, at his instigation, Ney Zealand gave Great Britain preference. From his hands it was a free gift made without any expectation of return, and; indeed, as a small return for many benefits conferred on us in the past. After all, even if preference to Great Britain did impose some small pecuniary sacrifice on the colonies, which I contend it does not, is there not the lact that Great Britain has provided lis with an Imperial Navy, Consular and Diplomatic Services free of cost in the past, and still, allowing that the colonies do make some small contributions towards naval defence, continues to do so? In addition, the British market is the i-.olomes best arid freest market, and the British Government for many years past has permitted colonial loans to be floated^on equal terms with its own. "There is this further danger, too, in reciprocal Imperial preference. May not a demand for reciprocal and preferential treatment between Mother Country 'and colonies and the various colonies themselves cause strained relations? For example, Bradford merchants a few months back complained when Canada, after granting Great Britain preference, offered a modified amount of preference to France in exchange for trade opportunities. To-day Canadian paper merchants note with disfavour that Australia and New Zealand have imposed duties on paper which favour the English manufacturer as against the Canadian." Discussing free trade within the Empire, Mr. Weston said it was difficult to see how it could become a question of practical politics in the near future, but it was an ideal to be sought.