EXTENSION OF TRADE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14708, 16 June 1911, Page 4

EXTENSION OF TRADE.

Lord Islington advanced very strong and convincing reasons, at the Chamber of Commerce banquet, in favour of the systematic extension of our export markets. However satisfactory the British market may be it is evidently unwise to depend solely upon it for the prosperity which would receive a severe shock by any marked decline in the prices obtained for agricultural produce. It is safer to distribute our trade as widely as possible, modelling our national policy upon the wise precedents set us by great commercial institutions. The Governor especially suggested Canada and the Continent of Europe as fields for our commercial exploitation, and it is manifest that both have great possibilities. The President of the Chamber suggested in his address that a trade commissioner might be despatched to Canada for the purpose of working there on our behalf, as the Canadian Trade Commissioner so ably works in this Dominion on behalf of his constituents. This is deserving of the consideration of Mr. T. Mackenzie, the Minister in charge of our commercial interests. The expense should not be great, and as it could hardly fail to widen our market the compensation would not only be ample but continuous. The Wellington Chamber of Commerce can hardly expect Auckland to agree to the concentration of fast Sydney services upon that city, even admitting that for the mail to Occasionally miss connection at this end of the railway has been more irritating to Wellington than the almost invariable failure of Sydney mails to connect at Wellington with the Auckland-bound train. Rut the Wellington Chamber may agree, that this question of the appointment of a Trade Commissioner to Canada is one upon which all commercial bodies can be unanimous.