The Times SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1939. Exports All-Important

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 171, 22 July 1939, Page 4

The Times SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1939. Exports All-Important

The people of this Dominion could not maintain the modem o.andards of civilised life were it not for the wealth of the country’s exports. To state so obvious a fact may appear to many readers unnecessary. But in view of three circumstances there is a necessity to give a reminder of this fundamental home truth.

The three circumstances referred to are: The campaign to develop secondary industries, the semi-tlirottling of Britain’s export trade to our shores, and the weakening of our primary industries by an ever-mounting burden of costs. in the enthusiasm for our “ncwiy-discovercd industries possibilities,” there is a danger that their importance and value will be exaggerated. *md also, due to tne double stanuard oDtaining in oitr economy, development of tnese may cause the scales to bo yet further weighted against our prouucers of exports.

In the eixort to save our national nuances, brought to the verge of bankruptcy by wanton extravagance, we now run grave risk of offending tlie Jiotheriand, upon whom wo are as dependent as a euild. Thirdly; due to tile costs increases referred to, the productive capacity of our export industries (the farms ) is now threatened with a serious shrinkage.

That exports arc aU-imporiaut to our standard of living, let our state be pictured were we cut olt from the world. \Ye would have no tea, eolfee, cocoa, rice, sago, tapioca, curry, pepper, salt, spices, currants, i ..sins, hgs, uauanas, pineapples or genuine oranges for our ta«.es. Ao cotton or silks to wear. Ao oils to serve our hundred* of thousands of motor-vehicles. Ao bulldozers for our public works. Ao steel for our bridges and buildings. Ao rubber, sulphur, lead, zinc, aluminium, copper or raw rock phosphate lor our manufacturing plants. Such a list might be endlessly extended. Of manufactured goods, there are thousands of individual items that we could never satisfactorily make. ' ,

AVe depend upon our exports to bring us such a vast array of goods that we cannot grow, mine or make here; of goods ail ready for consumption or use. But even beyond that, the very factories that we have, or might erect, are likewise dependent upon our exports. They must have raw materials, imported from overseas in nearly every case. These our secondary industries are unable to procure by their own efforts. There lias not been, and little prospect is to be seen, of any New Zealand-made goods bringing export income to these shores. Olio cannot imagine this country importing rubber and cotton, producing motor tyres and shipping these forth to other lands; or engaging successfully in any like enterprise. Plainly stated, our industrial development, the whole editice reared and being reared, is carried upon the farmer’s back.

What a contrast is provided by the primary industries! These produce meat, dairy products, wool and so forth, ship them to the Homeland 12,000 miles distant and there sell in competition with the whole world. How long would our manufacturing plants remain open were free entry offered the manufactures of all the world at our ports ? And yet, why should this not be so? They would at least have the quite useful protection of freight charges. Our farmers have freight, not as a protection, but as a handicap.

An open market, we all know, would be death to most, of our secondary industries. That, is due to our having built up, over all of 30 or 40 years, a quite unjustifiable and fictitious internal level of costs; one that severely handicaps our export producers and leaves the remaining .population little if any better off than they would have been upon a true standard.

By all means let us have secondary industries, but not at the risk of killing the goose that lays our golden egg. Never should it be forgotten that we depend upon exports to live as a civilised people. That our export trade depends upon Britain. And that any policy tßut harms this relationship s]>elis evil to this young nation and weakens the Empire.