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Hokitika Guardian, 10 December 1934, Page 4

It is iti Agricultural production and marketing that, the most urgent cliificuJtie have arisen, and that there is the most immediate need to dovetail I the policies lof lire /different Empire I Government’s says the .“Times” in an J editorial article on Empire Trade. The questions now being discussed between the British. Government and the Dominions most directly affected are certain to be discussed on a wider basis among the statesmen who will be gathered together in ,London next years for the King’s Jubilee. But agricultural problems cannot be considered in isolation from the problems of secondary industry, and, to be of service, any review of Empire markets must take into consideration the ’effect of contemplated restrictions upo n the markets in foreign countries for British manufactures and for Dominion produce. The first necessity for any useful discussion is a survey cf the facts. Here there arises at once a very serious difficulty. Every Empire Government is in possession of a substantial mass of figures concerning volume and- costs of production, . market capacities, prices, and so on. j But when these figures come to he | compared it is found that they have! been collected and analysed upon different systems. They cannot hie used to supplement 1 cue another and give n trust-worthy picture of the whole situation. In many informal discussions which must menu re the ground for the next Imperial Conference attention might well he given to the necessity of establishing common machinery to ascertain fact,, without an accurate; knowledge of which no satisfactory agreements are possible.