TRADE WITHIN EMPIRE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 5 September 1929, Page 6

TRADE WITHIN EMPIRE.

EVIDENCES OF [REMARKABLE; GROWTH.

Remarkable evidence of how trade within the Empire has developed is contained in the third annual report of the Empire Marketing Board. “The newness of many of the great exporting industries of foodstuffs and raw materials 'in the oversea Empire is not,” states the report, “perhaps, quite adequately appreciated. Every one of the Dominions, and many of the Colonies have advanced within the last fifty years from a relatively modest position, into that of important contributors to and purchasers in the great markets of the world. There lias joeen, an extraordinary development ot the Empire’s resources ever since the beginning of the present century. •*A survey confined only to the leading exports shows that Australia’s shipments of wool .have risen in this period from slightly over 500 million lib., to about. 800 million lb., and her exports of wheat from half a million tons to two. million. Canada’s wheat exports have grown from about a quarter Qf a million tons to approximately seven million tons, and her exports of newsprint from next to nothing to two million tons. New Zealand’s principal exports are woof and daily produce; the first has gene up from under 150 million to over 200 million lb., and butter from less than a quarter million, and cheese from 100,00Ucwt. to nearly one an.i a half million ovvt. in each case. In the Union of South Africa shipments of wool have risen from 90 to, 200 million lib. Newfoundland lias developed since the beginning 0 f the een- , an export trade in, paper to the annual value of £2l million. India, which cannot, of course, be compared with the Dominions for newness, nevertheless show.s a similar advance. Exports of nearly all her numerous, products have shown progress in the present century. Raw cotton, her main export, has increased from 400 mil*...n to nearly 1,500 million lib., last year and tea from 190 million lb. to 260 million lb.

In the Colonies an even more marked development lias occurred. Cocoa exports, for instance, have risen from less than half a million to, 110 million lb. ip Nigeria, and from Jess than, one and a quarter million to 490 million lb. 'in the Gold Coa.st. Exports, of rubber from British Malaya have grown from nothing to about 370,000 tons, although some part of the rubber exported has its origin outside British territory. Tea from Ceylon has gone from 140 million to 228 million lb., rubber from 73cwt. to one and a quarter million erwt., and copra from less than half a million to two million owt. Bananas from Jamaica (3-1 million fo 17 million bunches last year) may be quoted as a further instance.

“Two generations ago the United Kingdom derived only a very limited range oi' its requirements from overseas parts of the Empire. The fiftieth anniversary of the first shipment of frozen meat from Australia will take place towards the end of this year, while New Zealand’s meat trade only began in the ’eighties. Fifty years ago only small quantities of butter and cheese came from the southern Dominions; the tea industry of Ceylon was lot more than a few" years old; Canada had not yet began -to export apples, and no pears, plums, grapes, or peaches from South Africa, and no apples or pears from Australia had reached Great Britain liubber from Malaya, bananas from Jamaica, and cocoa from West Africa were equally unknown. A quarter of a century later, in 1904, these products had all appeared on the United Kingdom market; some of them, such as frozen meat and dairy produce, had become firmly established, others were in their infancy. But. there were still hardly any Australian currants or raisins, no New Zealand apples or pears, no South African oranges or grapefruit, and no Kenya coffee. Year by year the gaps were filled up. But as recently as the end of the war were no eggs from the southern Dominions and scarcely any home-produced beet sugar or canned fruits. In the last two or three years cigarettes made from Rhodesian tobacco have become familiar in the shops, cigarettes from Cyprus and Mauritius have been obtainable, and canned fruits from Fiji, chilled salmon from Newfoundland, and grapes from Palestine nave, for the first time, been shipped to Great Britain Nor lias this steady spreading of the range of Empire supplies ceased. New experiments in production an 1 constantly reported, and experimental consignments from many and scattered parts of the Empire give promise of an expansion in the future not less notable than [ in the past. “Such figures suggest that the marketing of Empire produce is being actively pursued in Great Britain. Many agents, some of them outside human control (the weather, for instance) have intervened. But one conclusion may safely be drawn. The tide of Empire trade is flowing strongly. The* Dominions and Colonies are able to supply more and more of the needs of the United Kingdom, and. in return, the United Kingdom is finding in the oversea Empire a growing demand for British goods. Already, with many of the Dominions and Colonies on the threshold of their economic manhood, the oversea Empire, while it comprises only one quarter of the world’s surface and population, absorbs nearly half the exports of the United Kingdom. “The Empire Marketing Board ha.si found in this active, stirring world of Imperial trade many new objectives in the last year towards the attainment of which its funds might properly and usefully be employed. It is naturally best known to the public through its publicity work, particulars of which are given in the body of the report. But its other activities have been no less vigorously pursued. These, seen as a whole, may be deluded as the making possible of an Empire-wide effort, in scientific co-operation. Such hopeful developments of the last year as the establishment of eight now linperial scientific bureaux. jointly financed by the Governments of the Empire, and the appointment of the Colonial Advisory Council of Agriculture and Animal Health show how strongly the tide is flowing in favour

of co-operation. Scientists and economists can between them offer fom main oontn'hntions towards tlie furtherance of Empire marketing. First they can help jo develop to the full the at present barely tapped natural resources of the Empire. Secondly, they can help to- Tender production as economical as possible by rediicins waste in the field, in transit, and in store. Thirdly, they can help to ensure that regularity of supple and unilorjnitv of quality which are two essentials of progressive modern marketing. Lastly. they can provide knowledge, on the one hand, of crop prospects and general trade conditions in any producing industry and. on the other hand, of the special demands and preferen'-es of the consuming public and of the traders through whom that public is reached. All the board’s expenditure on research and

on economic investigation serve one or more of these ends. ‘‘lt is essential in such work to take long views; (he prizes at stake are tremendous and. while the trend ol trade cannot he changed in a day. there is no discoverable limit to the rewards that may fall to wisely directed research and well planned economic organisation. Certainly no iiidustw Iluit- seeks (o hold its own and still more to advance under the prevailing conditions of world competition dare turn ils hack on the scientist or the economist.”