N.Z.-AUSTRALIAN TRADE

Grey River Argus, 11 August 1944, Page 4

N.Z.-AUSTRALIAN TRADE

ORANGES AND POTATOES. TIME TO DROP BARRIERS. (Rec. 7.45.) SYDNEY, August 10. New Zealand could have taken half a million cases of oranges last year from Australia, said the Dominion High Commissioner, Hon. J. G. Barclay, speaking at a civic reception at Gosford, the centre of a rich New South Wales orange growing district. When the war was over he would make every effort to get New Soutn Wales oranges into New Zealand in big quantities. There were now no trade rivalries between the two Dominions, he added, and the position did not arise where New Zealand said: “If you take my potatoes, 1 will take your oranges.” There had been reciprocity between the two countries during the war in goods in short supply in either Dominion, and he held the decided opinion that there should be more of a co-operative spirit and less of a competitive spirit, wnicn should never enter into their trade relations again.

It is pointed out that with the exception of Murrumbidge’s irrigation area, there had been a total ban on the import of New South Wales oranges into New Zealand since the end of 1933, because the New Zealand authorities stated that there has been, the risk of introducing the fruit fly. Those in New South Wales concerned with citrus exportation contended, at the time, that the prohibition was enforced following the activities by tne Tasmanian potato growers, which resulted in the Federal Government banning the entry of New Zealand potatoes into the Commonwealth.