MILK MARKETING

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 80, 2 October 1933, Page 11

MILK MARKETING

THE OVEESEAS ASPECT

MR. T. BAXTER'S VISIT

COMMENT IN BRITAIN

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, August 24. "Time and Tide" looks upon Mr. T. Baxter's visit to New Zealand as an interesting example of the new and bigger role played today by tho leaders of the farming industry. The commentator continues: —"Imports of dairy produce from Now Zealand at 'dumping' prices have wrought destruction to 'Home producers, and repeated protests have been met only by the reply, 'You agreed to this at Ottawa!' Official negotiations to amend the Ottawa clause haying failed, the leader of the mills industry himself sets out to put the English case, not to the Government, but to the farmers of the Dominion. Mr. Baxter carries with him tho ■ good wishes of every dairyman, for without the assurance of a reasonably remunerative market for its by-products the whjOle milk marketing scheme will collapse. This is too great a risk at its inception. As tho Minister of Agriculture pointed out, the new board will have the-responsi-bility of directing an enterprise as vast as that of the Electricity Board. They do well to seek directly at the outset an , understanding with their f ollowproducers overseas. If .they succeed, it will be a rare and welcome triumph for agriculture. In Peel's Parliament landed interests dominated policy. In Asquith's they were rarely heard. Today agriculture speaks ■ again, and speaks powerfully. Therein lies one of the best hopes for tho future, for the security of this, as of all lands, lies in the continued strength and vigour of its farm population." CONVERSION OF THE MISSIONARY. Tho "Scotsman" gives expression to the feeling that no high hopes are entertained that the visit of the chairman of tho Milk Marketing Board- to NewZealand will provo to be worth while: — "Ii: British Ministers produced so little effect on tho mind of the Pj'ime Minister of New Zealand, it is argued that Mr. Baxter's advocacy of the doctrine of quantitative restriction of imports will not produce- any great impression on the minds of the farmers. Indeed, the cynical are .already specu-. lating on whether the missionary may not himself be converted. Tho fact is that the southern Dominions have still to accept the view that the policy of restricting imports should be applied to Empire products. .New Zealand has been a foremost advocate; of the quota idea, but its spokesmen have consistently maintained that in no.ease should .it be applied to the products \ of the Empire. .. ■■ ,>• . ■ '•■.-■.' ..»•.. .... "The southern, Dominions argue that if the British market is glutted with supplies iUis the foreign producer who is responsible,'and that, in any restriction of imports the British. Government should begin by, placing an embargo on foreign supplies, and not-on foreign and Dominion supplies simultaneously. Jus: tiflcation for this attitude is being sought in a loose and mistaken interpretation which is being given overseas to the British Government's declaration at Ottawa, where It was stated that their policy was, first, to secure the development of Home production, and, secondly, to give tho Dominions an expanding share of imports into the United Kingdom. If that had boon a declaration of general policy the ease against interfering with Dominion supplies would have been strong, but this declaration referred only to meat supplies, which . conic.riiaiiily from foreign sources,'and'had no relation to embarrassment to Home production caused less by .'foreign,,imports than by preponderating supplies from the Dominion. ..; '■..■■'. • WOOING: NEW ZEALAND. /'The Field" says:— '~ .Dairy farmers must have '"-read .with amazement that the chairman of their proposed Milk Marketing Board -had left the country for three months oh a visit to New Zealand . • .'to persuade the Dominion' farmers .to put a > check on their shipments-of cheese and dairy produce to thi3 country. Evidently conversations between Major, Elliot and Mr. . Forbes have not led to an agreement, but it may "be that a heart-to-heart talk between farmers may. result in an.informal agreement in tho spirit rather than the letter of Ottawa. . . i Certainly'it ■is essential to, the success of the 'milk-pooling scheme thai the value of manufacturing milk should bo raised in the immediate future, and the only hope of .lifting the, market is to. induce the; Southern, Dominions to limit their shipments of cheese and butter. Under the Ottawa Agreements they enjoy a free market here, and Mr. Baxter will- need to uso all his' arguments to win the Home farmers' case. CONFLICTING LOYALTIES. The "Canadian.Gazette" remarks that Canada is much concerned with the discussions in progress between the dairy producers of England and New Zealand. The writer says:-— The British producer desires to cut away some of the advantages secured for the Dominion producer at the Ottawa Conference, and New Zealand and Australian producers, on. the other hand, ask how Budgets can lie bal-

■•meed ii; they aro preventedfrom sell: ing their produce'iK'tho British market to the bi-st advantage, and how the mutual tariff, advantages of the Ottawa Conference Agreements' can be secured without full reciprocity on the basis of Home (British or Dominion) first; other parts of the Empire second, and the foreigner third? We hope for a friendly outcome of the New Zealand discussions, and especially do wo hope that they will serve to remind British Ministers onco again that they cannot successfully pursue conflicting loyalties. They nfust really make up their minds whether they moan in their policy to put tho emphasis on Home and Empire or on the world at large. Mr. C. C. Brown Douglas, King William Street House,', puts forward his view of the dairy produce problem: — "I think the New Zealand farmer does not want to.curtail the _sales of the farmers here; what he naturally resents aro the enormous imports.of butter, etc., from, foreign countries, especially 'Russia and Denmark. If the British public would demand from the stores British or Empire produco it would help tho situation."