NEW ZEALAND'S PLACE IN THE EMPIRE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 23 May 1917, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S PLACE IN THE EMPIRE.

ADDBESS BY MB JIASSEY

The subject of Mr Massey's address before the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce was ''New Zealand: Its Place in the Empire." The Lord Moyor of Liverpool presided/ and there -was a very large attendance of business men (says the London correspondent of the Otago Daily Times). That was his first visit to Liverpool, Mr Massey said, but he hooed before leaving Great .Britain to nay * second visit to ascertain its possibilities and potentialities for the benefit of the people he represented. New Zealanders knew that Liverpool was one of the most important trading centres of the United Kingdom, and though they had not done much up to the present, they looked forward to doing more trade with Liverpool in the future. Two years ago, at the request of the Imperial authorities, they placed the whole" output of New Zealand at the disposal of the Board of Iraae. Up to Feb.'l6 last the number of ships loaded with frozen meat and despatched from New Zealand tor London was 151. JNew Zealand exr»orted more meat than any other country in the Empire, and it was second in the world Argentina coming first They had sold the whole of then wool for this year's output to the Imperial Government, also their output Keese and Gutter. He thoughtJte exports of wool would .be wortl £14 000,000, while the Imperial Government was tatfng all their hides and a mineral called shale, winch was wanted SriLel-making purposes. His opmic* was that during the present year•then transactions with the Imperial Govern, ment would amount to not less thai: £30.000,000. A WARNING. Continuing, Mr Massey fwltoto lieved that the supremacy of Great JttitSTwas going to <&&**&**£ the war in a way that it had nevei W before, but they had the consolaS of knowing that there had been « tremendous improvement in. the industrial methods and m the produce ot *« workshops since the war began, ft Tuld not forget that Germany financed plTwere suspicion of Imperial preference He did not want to sail under fate colours and would say at once thafhe was in favor of ference. People were now. looking at Se matter from the Empire building point of view. He dia not agree that ft would interfere with trade or the cost of living, but he thought that a pToper scheme of preference would so LrW the supply in *«s»****& the demand that the price or the ordinary necessaries of Me would ™\&>, u\; He would go further, and .say_ that it we had had a proper and well-thought-out scheme of preference 10 *f*»*? we should have had necessaries ofclifem Britain to-day very much cheaper than they are. We had countries that would prSuce all the food we required i| ?hey were certain of finding a market in the heart of the Empire itself. Preference to be satisfactory. must be apSied all round.' If Britain was going to rive "reference to the different countri£of Pthe Empire, he believed those countries/would go a great deal further than they had up. to the presenA. He hoped something in the not far distant future would be done with regard to Preference If we were not going to ?rlt by ihe lemons of the past then we deserved whatever happened to us. ; ;