MARKETING BOARD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21562, 5 August 1933, Page 11

MARKETING BOARD

DECISION TO ABOLISH LONDON PRESS CRITICISM (Received August 4, 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 4 The Daily Telegraph says Empire statesmanship is grievously at fault in allowing the Empire Marketing Board to go. A British official wireless message says the board has been financed entirely by the British Government at an average cost- of £500,000 a year. It is assumed that the decision to discontinue it indicates that the Dominions do not see their way to contribute toward its upkeep. A very considerable portion of the annual vote of about £500,000 to the j Empire Marketing Board has been exI pended on scientific research of general i utility and upon activities solely for ! the benefit of the home producer. I Actually, the board has been a distributing agency, large sums having been handed for expenditure to other State departments. For instance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had I received up to this year £339,250 for economic investigation in regard to th<? marketing of homo products with special reference to the existing methods of distribution and preparation for market. The British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research received many largo sums —£2500 for testing and the utilisation of Empire timbers, £177,099 for the low temperature research stations at Cambridge and East Maling, I and so on. Most of the British universities were granted large amounts for research work of various kinds. The endowment of a chair of Imperial economic relations at the London School of Economics was a charge on the board. Other Imperial institutions received funds from • the board. The Natural History Museum was endowed with £30,000. For visits by economic botanists abroad the lioyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, had £20,000, and £17,152 for the classification of herbarium specimens. For research in connection with the vitamin content of fruit, vegetable and dairy produce the Medical Research Council received £24,000. For the development of mechanical transport suitable for use in undeveloped parts of the Empire a vote of £60,000, spread over five years, was made. The total amount spent on direct marketing purposes was small by comparison. The title "Empire Marketing Board" was almost a nnisnomer, unless its functions were viewed as part of a longdistance aim for developing all the more primary industries of the Empire, including those of Britain. The original intention was that the board should spend the larger part of the money entrusted to it on the definite purpose of developing markets for Empire products. Instead, the board directed most of its efforts toward scientific research, and it is considered that a good deal of the funds so distributed might well have been allocated by the Government direct to the institutions that performed the work. Some of it might well have been debited to education. CONTROL OF IMPORTS BRITISH VIEW STATED LONDON, Aug. 3 The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour, Earl de la Warr, in a speech at Chepstown, said the Government's agricultural policy included the principle that where control of imi ports was essential for the effective I working of a scheme it should be avail- ! able. ! The High Commissioner for New Zealand, Sir Thomas Wilford, interviewed i on the subject, said ho was perfectly satisfied the British Government would j not attempt to alter the Ottawa agreeI ments.