The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, May 23, 1942. N.Z. OVERSEAS TRADE SUSTAINED.

Grey River Argus, 23 May 1942, Page 4

The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, May 23, 1942. N.Z. OVERSEAS TRADE SUSTAINED.

In spite iof complaints from Chambers of Commerce, not to mention the war-, New Zealand’s overseas trade, is not shrinking' in value. Last financial year the volume exceeded that of the previous year, and, even with import control, the goods brought into the Dominion, worth over fifty millions, exceeded in value the total for the previous twelve months by more than two and a half millions. On top of this, there was what is known as a “favourable balance,” of een and a half millions, compared with one -of twenty-three and a quarter millions in previous year. The past year’s export total at £69,162,000 was about two millions less than the preceding figure. No doubt the war has altered the. nature of imports, but the value, is more than maintained, so that the I country has every reason for ' satisfaction with the position, 1 even though some importers may have found the shoe pinch. Lt might l>e over optimistic, however, to expect, the present year to maintain the same volume of trade, seeing what a radical alteration the latest Avar developments have caused in our relation to seaborne traffic. Nevertheless, taking the present production year, extending- from July to June, the first nine months show a very definite advance over the corresponding portion of the previous season, namely an increase in exports of £3,397,000, and an increase in imports of £4,404,000. Taking the past d.ecade, exports were greater than thost of last year in only one preceding- year, and imports in only two preceding years. For the latest month as to which figures are available, March, exports were greater by over a million than in the same month of 1941. while there also was an increase in the value of imports, though it was not. so j large. For many decades this Country has been accustomed to gauge its prosperity by oversea trading in a far greater degree than by internal trading. The Avar, however, may mark a

new departure, because it has obliged the Dominion to create new forms of production, and those who in future raise the cry. that better quality, articles, are obtainable from oversea producers than from our own are not likely to obtain the same in* fluence as they formerly exercised. The true remedy is not the scrapping, but the improvement of quality in our own manufacturers. The Government has sponsored standardisation in .several directions, and it could with advantage take tiic workers equally with the employers into 'consultation in order to establish a good quality level, which might later be followed up with a more comprehensive endeavour to stabilise prices. We have ourselves felt obliged to regulate imports so as to foster new industries, but the conunterpart of that policy is to regulate internal as well as external trading. For instance, produce for export is at least graded, and our own consumers of all classes of commodities ar- ! entitled to ,be protected against exploiters of the type who vend an inferior article as a method of competition. It is the essence of modern capitalism to exact the highest profit margin, no consideration for quality or for labour being allowed to stand in the way. If the workers had a greater measure of control over their respective industries they, would take a pride in the quality of the output; forming the real majority of the consuming public, they would derive also a greater satisfaction when certain their purchases were of the best possible quality. History shows that when the industrial entrepreneur is only an investor, the tendency of quality is inevitably to decline. Modern capitalism displaced a system in which guilds, embracing all parties in industry, collectively fixed standards and prices, without the intervention of profiteers of the modern type. New Zealand has built up a good name in the export trade through the regard for quality which the State has found to be necessary, and the fact that competition has dictated that policy ■on the overseas market, goes to show that regard for quality on the home market would stabilise our economic system in a. still greater degree. Contrary to the Chambers of Commerce attitude, our future economic security depends far more upon internal than external trading, and especially upon producers and vendors subverting competition and monopoly to service and security. It is doubtful if our primary productive war effort would have been nearly as good as it is, had the Government not guaranteed the actual producers payable returns in the period when free competition precluded such returns. At anyrate, the present position or our oversea trade is itself a corrective of the critics who have hankered for the gains they obtain from higgling on the market.