AUSTRALIAN IMPORTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 62, 15 March 1939, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN IMPORTS

THE MODIFIED EMBARGO ,

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, March 11

The decision of the Federal Government to modify the embargo on New Zealand potatoes so as to admit 250 tons a week for one month was the result of the pressure of public opinion, steadily increasing during the last two months because of the famine prices for potatoes. The resentment of mainland consumers at the manipulation of the market by embargo-pro-tected Tasmanian growers or distributors, forcing prices to £30 a ton, was so keen that the Federal Government had no option but to. decide on a modification of the embargo.

But it seems from information here, that New Zealand will not benefit as much as it should. There is a considerable opinion that the Government has not taken action as a gesture to New Zealand, but merely to save its own face with consumer-electors. Traders here say that the New Zea- ' land crop will not be ready until April and that no potatoes are now available for export from New Zealand. The entry of New Zealand potatoes will not be a factor in reducing the Australian price, but this will be brought about by increased exports from Tasmania. Shortage of production in Victoria and New South Wales because of drought left the mainland short of normal supplies. Tasmanian growers and distributors for : three months have extracted toll from c.ori- ] sumers by strict regulation of supplies, thus maintaining prices on an artificial basis. The immediate result of the lifting of the New Zealand embargo was a glut. Growers rushed supplies to Tasmanian wharves for shipment to Sydney and Melbourne. PROTECTION OF GSOWERS. The Cabinet's decision was made against a last-minute protest by a special delegation sent to Canberra-by the potato section of the Federal Agricultural Council. The Prime Minister (Mr. Lyons) said that the Government's decision was made because of the shortage of potatoes for sale in Australia at reasonable prices. It was not proposed to permit unlimited import, but to so regulate entry that Australian growers would receive adequate protection. "The Commonwealth Government has always been ready to protect the Australian potato grower, who unj doubtedly has had at. times serious difficulties to overcome," he added. "But, in justice to consumers, it must be agreed that the present acute shortage should be relieved. A review of retail prices shows that there is a wide disparity between the retail prices, particularly in small lots, and I the prices which growers are receiving. The growers, therefore, are not obtaining the benefit w#iich those high retail prices would indicate." - Steps will be taken to have an inquiry made into this subject. "GOVERNMENT'S DUTY OVERLOOKED." "It is easier for the producer ,to secure protection than ,for the con- ! sumer," said the "Daily Telegraph" in commenting on the Government's decision. "The duty of Governments is to strike a proper balance. The very existence of an embargo shows that this duty is being overlooked. There is no justification for an embargo. Its existence operates against the consumer. . It makes market 'control' too easy, and tends to keep prices up without the grower getting the full benefit. A tariff is all that can be -justified. This would permit the importation of potatoes to keep prices within bounds, and at the same time protect the grower against dumping. There is a vicious tendency to load the scales against the consumer of essential foodstuffs. The pressure from special interests will have to be resisted." A PUBLIC MEETING. ■ On the day before the Government announced its decision, a large public meeting in the Sydney Town Hall decided to urge the immediate lifting of the embargo, any supporter of the embargo being heckled. Mr. R. Bruce Walker, M.L.A., who represents a citrus-growing district and who recently studied the citrus fruits and potato situation during a visit to New Zealand, was chairman of the meeting, and his principal supporter was Sir Frederick Stewar-t, M.P. - Sir Frederick Steward said that as Minister for Commerce in 1934 he negotiated on the matter with the New Zealand Government. Now he had to take the opposite side to those people with whom he was allied, but he allied himself with principles rather than with party. After the 1934 tentative agreement which he had negotiated, there was an election and the formation of a coalition Government had apparently been the death-knell of it. At a conference in Canberra between New Zealand and Australian experts, it had been decided that quarantine restrictions were unnecessary.

"This matter is an example of the narrow parochial view which appears to dominate national policy," he declared. "That is also evidenced by another matter of which Australians will hear a lot more before they are much older. How much longer are these selfish interests going to dominate that policy to the detriment of the community? That will be largely determined by people such as are gathered here. How much longer are you going to tolerate it?"