TRADE WITH THE EAST

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 27, 1 February 1924, Page 6

TRADE WITH THE EAST

The Farmers' Union, which waited on the Minister of Customs, Mr. Downie Stewart, yesterday, requesting inquiry into the possibilities of ah export trade in New Zealand.products to the Far East, is not alone in thinking that considerable business there is just waiting to be done, but cannot be undertaken because of want of direct shipping between this Dominion 'and Eastern countries. The Minister outlined what' had been done by the Government in considering a proposal for installation of such a service by the ltoyal Dutch Packet Company involving the removal of certain preferential duties—on Java tea, for instance; but he made it plain that the Government was not prepared to consider subsidies. The point that does not "seem quite clear in the public mind on this subject of trading with the Far /East is the extent of the markets in that quarter for the principal commodities that New Zealand has to offer: meat, wool, and dairy produce. The Far East is a geographical definition which includes •' China, Japan, Eastern Siberia, Netherlands Indies, Straits Settlements, Borneo, Philippines, Siam, and Cambodia. These are countries all separated 1 by long distances. " Some ports of the remoter parts' of them are not open as to shipping during the winter months. But, in any case, the white populations of China and Japan, and the Far East generally, who alone could pay our prices for meat, dairy produce, and fruit, are relatively sparse. The Philippines are American, the Netherlands Indies are Dutch, and Cambodia is French. All these are foreign countries and naturally accord a more cordiai welcome to goods from countries of which they are .colonies than from others. It is true that Australia ,has a fair trade in,the Dutch Colonies anS some trade with the Philippines; but it does not follow that there is room for New Zealand as well. Besides, Australia is a considerable importer of Ghinese and Japanese and Javanese cargoes. . The trade potentialities of New Zealand with the Far East, or any considerable portion of it, may be great, but they are at present too much in the air to be seriously considered by the_ Government. Mr. Stewart is taking,- we believe, quite the right line in so regarding them, and in not, therefore, at present committing the Government to any definite action. There "are local houses in constant touch with the East—here in New Zealand. If they x could build up a trade exceeding present dimensions they would do so. For the time\being, then, -Great Britain must be considered as New Zealand's greatest and best market, and one by no means yet exhausted.