EMPIRE EXHIBITION

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 176, 26 June 1926, Page 8

EMPIRE EXHIBITION

influence on inter-empire TRADE. DEVELOPMENT OF RESOURCES. Some interesting comment on the Wembley Exhibition and its influence on Empire trade was made by Mr I. W. Attwood, F.R.H.S., of Wellington, and ex-president of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation, when addressing a meeting last evening of the local Fruitgrowers’ Association. Mr Attwood’ was stationed at Wembley, where he looked after the interests or New Zealand fruitgrowers, and his observations on the effect of the exhibition were very interesting. , After the war, he stated, Britain had lost oontrol of her trade markets, and, with a view to the investigation of inter-Empire trade, had conceived Wembley. There had been nothing foreign about the exhibition, which had showed that there was not a single thing that was required by the Empire that could not be produced witlnn its confines. Australia and New Zealand w.ent to England for most of their requirements and, in return for that preference, wanted a market for their produce. England had still hung to her policy of free trade, but now that policy had to be reviewed, and preferential treatment had to come about. Wembley had drawn the Empire together, and now there was a need for the strengthening of the bonds of trade relationship. A more wider distribution of tli© population of the Empire was also needed, and when that came about there would be no need to go outside for trade requirements. There was something that the British peoples could learn from the United States, for there was no use denying the fact that the American race was efficient in business and by its attention to detail had forged ahead where Britain had often lagged behind. English manufacturers were waking up to the fact that, in : numerous cases their machinery was unsuitcd for colonial conditions,' and it was pleasing to note that they were remedying the position. The time was coming when it would be possible for New Zealand to obtain all its requirements from Britain. Wembley had sown the seed, and it was now for the harvest to ripen.