PRODUCE MARKET IN EAST

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 18 November 1932, Page 4

PRODUCE MARKET IN EAST

OUTLET FOR DOMINIQN REPLY TO MR. GOODFELLOW. HON. R, MASTERS’. CONTENTIONS TIME ACTION WAS TAKEN “I am convinced that a. market exists, not -onlv for butter and cheese, but- also for dried milk, meat, hides and skins,” said the Hon. R. Masters, Minister of Industries and Commerce, when referring, at the opening, of the Stratford A., and P. Show yesterday, to his contention that New Zealand had a potential market in the East lor dairy produce. Mr Masters, said his attention had been drawn to a remark made by Mr William Goodfellow in his recent address at Stratford. My Goodfellow had said no market existed in the East for New Zealand butter and cheese because of the poverty of the teeming millions of, people. There were teeming millions all right, said Mr Masters,' but not aH of tTiem- were poverty-stricken or even poor. That was obvious from the fact that milk , products worth about £4,000,000 a year were being imported. He felt that the time had come when New Zealand should exert- itself to capture a share cf this business. Although Mr Goodfellow had denied the existence of an Eastern market, Mr Masters said it was significant that the New Zealand Dairy Company, in which Mr Goodfellow was interested, was’ itself represented through-out the -East and was devoting considerable time and energy to popularising its own Anchor brand products.

“While New Zealand producers are putting their shoulders to- the wheel and increasing production, ■’ Mr Masters said, “the question of what is to happen to that produce calls for serious consideration. ’’

Mr Masters referred to the imports of butter, cheese, condensed and other kinds of milk into various countries in the East and stated that the approximate values of such products were: Into l India. (1930-31). £700,000; China (1929),. £447,000; Japan (1928). £421,000; British Malaya (1930., £1,820,000; Burma) (1930-31). £412,500. Those figures meant that- milk products worth approximately £4,000,000 a- year were being imported into- those countries. There were also great opportunities, Air Masters said, for extending New Zealand’s export trade t-o the East in such commodities as wool, hides and skins, fruit and meat. , Agriculturists all over the world were going through an exceedingly difficult time, added Air Alasters, and in. Great Britain, especially, were facing a serious crisis. That universal acute difficulty caused him to wonder what the effect would be on New Zealand which at present depended almost solely upon consumption in Great Britain for the market of its produce. Agriculturists in Great Britain had received a taste of the effects of protection, and more recently had experienced an example of the operation of restriction on their market-. Already a. .100 per cent, restriction had been imposed on meat exported from- New Zealand into Great Britain, and Air Alasters was inclined to the belief that out of these new measures would arise a. serious political question 'whenefforts might -be made to extend the same restrictions to New Zealand butter and cheese. That was a. serious thought, and on© to cause grave concern among the leaders of the industry in New Zealand.

What, then, would New Zealanders do about their steadily increasing dairy production ? Production in New Zealand and Australia this season had already increased by 35,QG0 tons. Unless New Zealand t-ook similar .steps to those already taken in Australia and sought new markets, everyone engaged or .interested in primary industries would be up against a stiff and troublesome time.