QUOTA PROPOSAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 30 September 1933, Page 8

QUOTA PROPOSAL

EFFECT ON DOMINION

TOO SERIOUS A VIEW TAKEN

STATEMENT BY MB. BAXTER

Speaking in reply to those who had put before him Iho position of the New Zealand dairy farmer, Mr T. Baxter, representative of the National Farmers Union of England and Wales, outlined to a gathering at New Plymouth on Tuesday night the situation of the British farmer, which had led the British Government to commit itself to a definite restriction oil the imports of dairy produce from New Zealand. The situation as far as New Zealand was concerned, lie emphasised, was not as serious as New Zealanders believed, reports the “Taranaki Daily News.”

He was not able to make any long statement because lie was pledged to discuss tlic matter with representatives of the dairy industry next Saturday, Mr Baxter said. “After seeing the violent eruptions yon are used to putting up with in this country,” he continued, “I cannot conceive that the small matter which has brought me here should affect you at all. You are taking a lar too serious view of the matter. It is just that something has happened to the world that has brought the increase in consumption almost to a stop. “You have been educated all your lives to produce more and more, considering that no matter how much you produced England could absorb it,” continued Mr" Baxter. “The time lias come when for a moment the market is full. I cannot see any way of improving tilings unless we stop the saturation that is taking place. Tlmt is all that has happened up to now. For the life of me I cannot see how it will he serious for New Zealand

LIMITING CHEESE EXPORTS

“It may be only for a. moment that we ask you to call a halt in .development. Non will not find that the limits that will be set will be serious in the matter of tonnage at all. All we ask at the time is that you should limit the export of cheese to some extent. We have no idea, ol asking you to accept a big cut in what you are sending. But we ask you to accept the fact that for the time being the market is full, and that by those means the market can be brought right again. “I agree with every word that Mr Poison spoke, and I recognise the loyalty of New Zealand and the other Dominions. But in spite of that, there aie reasons why what Mr Poison suggested cannot be done,” Mr Baxter continued, in referring to tiic suggestion to place the restrictions only on foreign countries. Restrictions were being imposed for the sole purpose of raising the price to Britain’s own suppliers, but if, for instance, imports from Denmark were, restricted, say, 10,000 tons, there would bo nothing to stop the Dominions from immediately filling . the gap. They could not ask the British Government to accept such a thing. It would not overcome the glut ill the market, and it would make the Government the laughing-stock of the world.

DANISH COMPETITION

There was also another reason against tlie suggestions made being put into operation. The British working man had the last say in such questions. Danish butter was considered the best ol the butters imported into Britain, whatever the reason was. It might be only that the Danes were first in the market and had established themselves. The fact remained that if the British Government. was so foolish as to restrict Danish butter alone then the working man would never put up with it. He would say: “Why should the best be restricted and I he asked to cat a lowei grade butter?” Tariffs and quotas would he the war-cry of an election, and it might he that there would he a complete change of Government. .1 hey might even see the tariffs that had been employed against the foreigner disappear. Agriculture was no different from the industrial factory, as far as he could see, Mr Baxter said. If the agriculturist was over-producing tthcre was nothing else to do but to shut down and stop developing, lie hoped that the slop would ho for only a short time, and that the development that was going on at present would be continued.

MARKET SATU RATED

“My message is that our market is saturated, and that we do not want you to send us any more,” Mr Baxter concluded. The prosperity of the Dominions depended on the prosperity ol Britain, which in turn depended on the prosperity of Clio farmer. Agriculturists comprised 70 per cent, of the population of Hie world, and they were the greatest consumers of manufactured goods. If they received a price that left them nothing to buy manufactured Sis. then the manufacturer would He hoped to have an opportunity the next day of showing Air Polscn figures of what the Dominion and other countries sent to Britain and how necessary it was that Britain should not drive other countries to the point of retaliation.