"DISQUIETING"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 5, 6 July 1939, Page 22

"DISQUIETING"

RESTRICTED MARKET

The decision of the United Kingdom Government to restrict imports of New Zealand mutton and lamb was disquieting, the Hon. J. E. Duncan (Auckland) said when seconding the Address in Reply in the Legislative Council yesterday afternoon. If the standard of living were raised in Britain the market for New Zealand products would expand in spite of the declining birth-rate in the United Kingdom.

New Zealand was a wonderfully healthy and productive country, Mr. Duncan said. The fertility of its soil was such that its productivity was very high in relation to its area. The quality of the Dominion's produce was also unrivalled.

It was essential to the economic life of the Dominion that it should maintain its markets for its produce. The British restrictions might have an adverse effect. It was regrettable that the population of Britain, after the marked increase during the nineteenth century, was now static, and economists believed that it would slowly decline. This position must be viewed with alarm by New Zealand.

"I believe, however, that this shrinkage in population could be halted if the purchasing power of the people were increased and the standard of living raised," said Mr. Duncan. This would automatically lead to a greater demand for consumable goods, and should provide an expanding market at Home for New Zealand's exports. Great Britain had been New Zealand's greatest market in the past, and he believed it would be so in the future. Actually Great Britain produced only one-third of the foodstuffs it consumed. New Zealand exported two-thirds of its products.