OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

Matamata Record, Volume XVI, Issue 1443, 20 July 1933, Page 4

OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

ARE WE OUT OF TOUCH ? London messages on the dairy produce quota issue suggest that New Zealand is out of touch with British opinion, and is in danger, therefore, of making a grave error in policy.

. . The New Zealand farmers are viewing this wholly as a British farmer protection movement. Major Elliot’s announced intention to help [the Home producers of foodstuffs has caused New Zealand producers to consider the present proposals as entirely selfish. Yet we are as vitally interested in the tone of the British market as are the Home farmers. A smashed market is no use to us. If we could view the subject from a different angle, realising that our interests as well as British interests were being considered, we might be less v compromising in rejection. Even if this consideration is disregarded it is essential that we should try to see the British viewpoint. The press mesages leave no doubt that, if we stand immovably on our Ottawa Agreement rights now, we shall be compelled to pay when the Agreement expires. The quota must be considered on its own merits and our farmers will be acting unwisely if they insist, from their remote position, that the New Zealand delegates shall act against their own better judgement and reject the quota at all costs. Mr. Forbes and Mr. Masters are in England to give advice, not merely to take instruction from this end. J Wellington Evening Post.