EMPIRE TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 127, 25 November 1935, Page 18

EMPIRE TRADE

MR. BOTHAMLEY'S SPEECH

Mr. R. W. Botham'.ey, Democrat candidate for Otaki, addressed a wellattended meeting of electors at the Railway Theatre, Otaki, on Saturday night.

The policy of the Democrat Party was reviewed by the candidate, who made special reference to exchange and the one-way trade between Australia and this Dominion. "It is certain," contended Mr. Bothamley, "that if New Zealand cannot sell her produce we are doomed to still further eco > mic chaos, because if Great Britain cannot sell her manufactured articles she cannot buy our primary produce. The present artificial rate of exchange is responsible for Australia exporting goods to this Dominion that unquestionably should be coming from Great Britain—our one and only market.

"The Democrat Party is opposed to the present artificial rate of exchange, one of the reasons being that it is a 25 per cent, tariff on goods manufactured in Great Britain. Unless this Dominion purchases the product of the wageearner in Great Britain there will not be much custom for our primary producers

"After four years of waiting." added Mr. Bothamley, "foreign and other markets are still closed to us, and likewise Australia seems determined to keep up her tariff barriers against us. Dangerous fallacies so strongly opposed by the Democrat Party will never restore national stability or the good will of what has been referred to by Mr. Forbes himself as being 'our one and only market.'"

The chairman of the meeting was Mr. F. Ryder, and a vote of thanks moved by Mr. T. Morgan, seconded by Mr. W. Bowden. was accorded the candidate,