MEAT NEGOTIATIONS ARE CRITICISED

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 55, 7 March 1939, Page 8

MEAT NEGOTIATIONS ARE CRITICISED

Duel Between Mr. Nash and Mr. Coates A LIVELY EXCHANGE Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, March 6. , Criticism by Mr Coates former Minister of finance, of the failure cf the Government to save the meat producers of New Zealand from the restrictions recently imposed by Great Britain upon meat imports, drew a sharp reply from Mr Nash, present Minister of Marketing, who charged Mr Coates with being one of the originators of the quota system. "New Zealand will remember," said Mr Nash “that Mr Coates was an early advocate of quotas and more than anyone else advocated New Zealand’s acceptance of the principle of the quota. Mr Coates, at Ottawa, signed the first formal agreement and provided that the Dominion’s exports of mutton and lamb to the United Kingdom would be held within a definitely fixed limit. Further, butter and cheese quotas had been advocated." Mr Nash said that there was no evidence that New Zealand had had any right to an expanding share on the British meat market. "As understood in the language of fishermen I have at least been successrul in securing an early rise,” said Mr Coates, M.P., in commenting on the reply made by Mr Nash, "but in perusing Nash's statement it appears that Mr Nash is arguing on the basis of shouting “Gam, you’re another.' "It is well known that I caused the depression,” Mr Coates said, “but now Mr Nash wishes to hail me as the Inventor of quotas. Let Mr Nash or anyone else read the pamphlet referred to and try to make himself believe that I introduced quotas. I think I have made it clear already that between 1931 and 1935 we had to face difficulties in the way of meat restriction proposals just as difficult as anything that Mr Nash has encountered, but I repeat that during that period our exports of mutton and lamb to the United Kingdom were never restricted. We worked to allocations certainly, but they were always roomy enough to give us hope of expansion.

"As for the mutton and lamb allocation, in the first full year following Ottawa it was definitely 4,000,000 cwt. I have stated that the arrangement was subsequently varied, but that figure was always considered in subsequent negotiations. Mr Nash has now submitted tamely to a reduction mandatorily made of 500,000 cwt. In all the quota discussions with which I was personally concerned the case of the New Zealand Government was based on regulation not restriction. “The plain fact of the matter,” Mr Coates added, “is that Mr Nash has lost the expanding share of the British market for which we struggled sc hard. Apparently he has been so busy with his plans for social security and unport restrictions that he has not considered the meat position to be sufficiently important for a strong effort cri his Dart"