ANY EXCUSE BETTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 12

ANY EXCUSE BETTER

THAN NONE

Lame arguments by politicians are by no means scarce either in New Zealand or Australia, but the wooden leg in Mr. Lyons's latest is so noticeable that Mr. Savage, who has some knowledge of such matters, is easily able to point out the defect. The citrus-potato war between the Australian and the New Zealand Governments is many years old; the balance of trade between the two countries, adverse to New Zealand, is still older; but restriction of imports into New Zealand is comparatively -an affair of yesterday, and provides no genuine reason (such as Mr. Lyons suggests) for the potato policy which the Commonwealth Government pursued long before import-restriction in this country was thought of. Import-restriction is a general policy (pioneered in the Southern Hemisphere by Australia herself) and the citrus-potato war is a particular phase of policy which could have been adjusted years ago if reciprocity enthusiasm had equalled vote-hunting zeal. The plain fact of the matter is that Victorian and Tasmanian potato interests have been too strong for the many prominent Australians, including United Australia Party politicians, who have attacked the potato policy on its merits—too strong, also, for the Australian citrus interests, who want a New Zealand market. The issue has been much more political than economic, and political and voting considerations have prevailed. Victoria and Tasmania, whose State Parliaments are not ruled by the United Australia Party, are important in the Federal voting strategy: and the demand of the man on the land for as much protection as the Australian manufacturer enjoys makes the co-operation of the ■ United Australia Party and the Country Party, in the Federal sphere, very delicate. If Mr. Lyons wished to state the real reasons for the potato policy, his statement would deal with internal politics; but quite recently the New Zealand Government's import-restriction has provided him with a belated excuse. Import-restriction, whether right or wrong, neither explains nor excuses whatever went before.