PROBLEM OF MARKETS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 98, 27 April 1932, Page 7

PROBLEM OF MARKETS

QUESTIONS FOR OTTAWA

ADDRESS BY SIR JAMES

PARR

At the request of members of the Wellington Stock Exchange, the Hon. Sir James Parr, former New 'Zealand High Commissioner in London, delivered an address to a large gathering of business men in the Dominion Farmers' Institute conference hall last evening upon the problems which it .was hoped would be solved,,to the,advantage of the Homeland, the. Dominions, and the colonies; at the Ottawa Conference. By a system of seientifia tariffs and: quotas, said Sir James, New Zealand and the Empire generally would ,'greajtly' benefit. New Zealand's markets would be ■extended and her rapidly increasing production would be absorbed within the Empire,'for it would largely take the place now occupied by foreign suppliers. . Mr. E._ Bucholz, chairman of the Wellington Stock Exchange, presided. War did not end when the Great War ended, said Sir James, for a new kind of war broke ', out, ■afterwards. It was an economic war, a war for markets. England's and New Zealand's immediate problems were the same: how to get markets for ever increasing 'production. How this problem of markets might be solved was the question of the hour. Those who'advocated the economic unity of the: Empire said that the Empire, by a system of scientific tariffs, could easily keep and use the Empire's markets for the Empire's peoples. A Chinese wall around the Empire against all foreign trade was not suggested. "Foreign trade was necessary and expedient, but the point was that there was far too much trade with foreigners. EMPIEE TRADE POSSIBILITIES. "If. Britain can supply our needs why go past, her?" said Sir James. "If Now Zealand can supply Britain's foodstuffs why should Britain buy foreign ftiodstufßf? Our needs are complementary. Britain buys* foodstuffs ' from overseas at the rate of £1000 a minute. In one year she purchased £300,000,000 worth of from fof eign places. All these foodstuffs the Dominions 'and colonies could have supplied. "What a wonderful market for us is here., "Let us look at the other side: of the picture. The dominions and the colonies and India enriched foreign countries by orders amounting to £500,000,000 in one year, when British manufacturers could have supplied at least 60 per cent, of; these goods.. Imagine a cheque for 250 millions diverted to British'factories.