“You Never Miss The Water Till The Well Runs Dry”

Northern Advocate, 27 April 1939, Page 9

“You Never Miss The Water Till The Well Runs Dry”

{Special to “Northern Advocate "l TAURANGA, This Day. “In New Zealand we are re-learning ithe lesson that you never miss the 'water until the well runs dry,” said 'Mr F. W. Doidge, M.P. for Tauranga, •yesterday. Cash Boxes Empty. “The cash boxes in London and In Wellington are empty. In desperation, the Government turns towards its :policy of insulation. We are to shut cut imports, and become self-sufficient. With our secondary. industries fully developed, we shall be immune from slumps and trade cycles.” Was there ever a more fatuous assumption? Mr Doidge asked. The United States, before the last great islump, had erected the highest tariff ■walls against the outside world that ithe world had ever known. Not only •were manufactured goods from other .countries shut out, but foodstuffs as .well. Did insulation save America in a period of world depression? It did ■ not. Worse To Come. “The chaos and confusion which the j Government policy will cause within New Zealand is bad enough, but in'finitely more important is the risk we : run of imperilling our positions on ; the London market. “We in New Zealand, while desirous of the expansion of our secondary industries upon sound lines, know that the real source of our wealth lies in the primary industries. “We are the world’s greatest exporters of dairy produce. >We are the world’s second largest exporters of wool. And the Londpn market is, to all intents and purposes, our only market. •, 1 Is It a Square Deal? . ; '• ••Britain takes 90 per cent of .all we export. We, in turn, take only. 50 per

cent of what we import from Britain, And now Mr Nash declares an almost complete embargo. Is that giving Britain a square deal?” There was need today for a crusade in every city in New Zealand, in order that a plain fact should be driven home, Mr Doidge added, .and that was a realisation that the land was the living foundation of the economic structure of the Dominion, Now, and for many years to come, every man, woman and child in New Zealand would depend upon the prosperity of the primary industries.