A PROTECTED BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 134, 3 December 1926, Page 9

A PROTECTED BRITAIN

IF SHE DID AS WE!

WHERE WOULD OUR MARKET BE?

"May I remind you (said Sir George Elliot in his chairman's addfess to the Bank of Now Zealand shareholders at their half-yearly meeting to-day) that practically the whole of our exportable surplus is shipped to the United Kingdom, and it is within the range of possibility that in tho years to come the demand for our products there may gradually decrease. World conditions aro changing. The tendency amongst the Nations —not excluding the British Overseas Dependencies—is to heighten their Customs barriers in order to encourage their manufacturing industries, and, as a consequence, British trade must suffer. • "However much she may dislike the idea, Great Britain may yet be compelled, for the protection of her own people, to change her policy and follow tho pernicious example that is being set her, and, by the imposition of heavy protective duties, close a market that ha 3 been open and free to the products of ever race and nation. Canada for the Canadians, Australia for the Australians, New Zealand for the New Zealandors, are popular, if seiflsh, mottoes. If Great Britain adopted the same slogan' and acted on it, tho export trade of New Zealand, at any rate, might be prejudicially affected. "Our country cannot have it both ways; she cannot expect indefinitely to have a free market in the Old Country if her own Customs door is gradually being closed. In the event of a revision of the New Zealand Customs tariff, this asp'-ct of a very, serious question should receive, the most careful consideration."