FARMING

Grey River Argus, 14 June 1933, Page 3

FARMING

EMPIRE SOLIDARITY Lord Bledisloe’s Advice ••TRUST BRITAIN.” Addressing a large gathering at the Waikato Winter Show at Hamilton, the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, appealed for earnest co-operation between New Zealand and Great Britain, especially in matters affecting the welfare of the primary producers. “In the important field of primary production,” said Lord Bledisloe, “I rejoice to learn that both dairy produce ami field roots display a uniformity of equality betokening a high average standard of output. To a country whose very existence depends upon its export trade, this element of uniformity is of paramount importance. ! ny system of grading for export or of I organised control (preferably on the initiative of the farmers themselves) which makes for uniformity and the commercial goodwill or market confidence which flows from it. will stabilise the returning prosperity of New Zealand and add millions to the wealth of its inhabitants. In this connection I desire to express my unqualified pleasure at the enlightened decision of your Waikato dairy farmers to support the Government in making the new regulations regarding milk products and dairy factories effective am] successful. They will, lam confident. never regret it. lam glad to be a confident prophet of better times coming. RETURNING PROSPERITY. During the last fortnight there has been a more definite ami reliable indication of returning industrial prosperity than at any time during the past two years. The fate of the world for many years to come depends upon the success of the World Economic Conference and the Disarmament Conference now sitting at Geneva. and these in turn depend in the main upon the vision .“.nd wholehearted eo-opcra-tion of the two great Anglo-Saxon nations. Britain and America. over conomic. problems and upon a spirit of reconciliation between | ,l rance and G erm any which Britain is straining everv nerve to develop. Commodity prices are slowly improving with reviving confidence and give good promise of being ere long remunerative to those countries which take full advantage of the teachings of science, who conduct their marketing in orderly fashion, and who will sternly resist all temptation to public extravagance. “In due course the British market will absorb at remunerative prices all the best of New Zeala.nd’s primary products, but competition with other parts of the Empire will develop under shelter of Imperial preference as that with foreign countries abates, and therefore improvement in quality such as this exhibition fosters is the acme of commercial wisdom. The high reputation of this Dominion for its sheep and its da.iry produce must not be prejudiced by putting upon the British market third-rate lambs, hairy wool, whey butter, or discoloured or cracked cheese.

SINCERITY OF MOTHER COUNTRY. “What 1 'would most earnestly press upon you is to trust implicitly the absolute genuineness and sincerity of the Mother Country to offer henceforth such advantages to her Dominions, and especially to New Zealand, as will stabilise the prosperity of their primary products, and ensure for them definite and permanent advantages over their foreign competitors. Whatever may be the advanta.ges or disadvantages to this country of any particular proposal coming from Britain to meet temporary market embarra.ssments, don’t allow any spirit of discord or lack of sympathy to develop between British and New Zealand producers. They arc henceforth in the same boat, not as hostile competitors, but a.s partners in the scheme to deelop Imperial prosperity. Never let the expression, ‘the, thin end of the wedge’ be used in relation to any trade policy between Britain and this Dominion. Britain is sternly and irrevocably ‘pro-Empire,’ and if the separatist economic wedge be ever driven between her and a.ny of the Dominions it will certainly not be your Motherland which 'will wield the mallet.

“The Empire Marketing Board, by its research grants and publicity work, provided at the cost of the British taxpayer, has mea.nt millions of pounds |to the New Zealand primary producer. (The butter publicity campaign of 1931 in the Midlands and North of England more than made good to New i Zealand the £2,000,000 a year loss in butter export to Canada which resulted from that Dominion’s increased export. duties. New international agreements are every month now being made between Britain and competing foreign countries, such as Denmark, Sweden and Germany. In every one of them a limit is being fixed to the supply of foodstuffs and raw materials which the Dominions arc equally capable of supplying, with the proviso that this limit shall be reduced gradually as products of equal quality am] description become available in sufficient quantities from different parts of the Empire. DOMINION’S PIG INDUSTRY. “This is the case in the matter of pig meat, as hitherto imported into Britain from Denmark. This pig meat must come preponderantly from those Empire countries which are supplying Britain with her dairy produce, of which New Zealand is the chief. There lies, in fact, open to this Dominion to build up a great swine industry, -with a confident market for its output, if dairy farmers will, without delay, bend (hemselves to the task of producing

the sort of pig which the British bacon factories ami consumers want. “The same considerations apply to chilled beef, the tra.de in 'which is confined almost exclusively to. Argentina. Experiments are being made, under the supervision of the Low Temperature Research Station at Cambridge University, which give good promise of the future successful transport of chilled beef from New Zealand to Great Britain. with the help of carbon dioxide as a preservative in the ship’s hold to avoid deterioration from black mould, which, unfortunately, spoilt the experimental shipment made from Wellington last February. This opens up the prospect of a new and profitable industry for New Zealand, but. as in the rase of pigs, the right type, of beef cattle have to be obtained from abroad in much larger quantities if the Dominion is going to be able, without undue delay, to secure her share of it. Such cattle must be fine in the bone and skin, free from excessive offal, and, above all. fast maturing. NEED FOR FRESH BLOOD IN STOCK. “Pedigree animals for these and other requirements in New Zealand cam not be secured unless farmers can see their way to change their views as regards the embargo now imposed upon the importation of live stock from Great Britain. There is no ountry which has greater need of fresh blood, there is none in which stock owners advocate, as many here appear 1) do, a continuous and uninterrupted mbargo upon its admission, and there is none which, owing to its geographical position, is so secure against the possible admission of foot-and-mouth disease, quite apart from the absolute protection afforded by the drastic system of quarantine enforced, both in the Old Country on export and here on import.

“The maximum period of incubation of the disease is from 12 to .14 days, a.nd the voyage to this country takes at least five weeks. Outside the British Empire there is no stock-rais-ing country in the whole world which is so free from foot-and-mouth disease as Great. Britain. In other countries where it is prevalent it is usually allowed to ‘rip.’ The reason why such drastic measures are taken for its suppression when an occasional outbreak occurs in Britain is not that it is a dangerous disease —it is. in fact, easily curable, and without any treatment at least 93 per cent, of those ffccted with it in Argentina recover —but that it is a violently infectious disease, and in a country so crowded with live stock and with so large an xport trade in valuable pedigree anials as Britain, such a policy is deemd true economy. APPEAL TO STOCK OWNERS. “As one who at Home has had, as a, member of the British Government,

the administration of animal diseases, and as such went in 1927 on its behalf on a mission to the South American Republic, where this disease is most seriously prevalent, I would earnestly appeal to New Zealand stock owners, in their own best interests, to explore this problem thoroughly before coming to any hasty decision on the matter.”