Giving John Bull the Cold Shoulder

NZ Truth, Issue 1168, 19 April 1928, Page 4

Giving John Bull the Cold Shoulder

A PRACTICAL farmer and a high-liyht on a harbor board. At first sight, little less incongruous, perhaps, than the spectacle of a breezy Jack Tar

astride a flaming war-horse. Yet the chairman of the Wellington Harbor Board is J. G. Cobbe, a successful sheep-farmer m the hinterland of the province.

A very good reason, indeed, why the man on the land should have some say m the administration of a port. He wants the most efficient appliances and organization for the quick handling of the country's wealth — and incidentally his own profit.

J. G. Cobbe demonstrates that business acumen is not the perquisite of the keen city man alone. There are some hard, heads m the country districts also. Chairman Cobbe is one of the big-wigs of the Feilding district. He has held numerous public positions m the inland town. Chairman of the A. and P. Association, Chamber of Commerce and Farmers' Freezing Company are a few of the public offices he has filled. A very important part of his job as Harbor Board chairman is to review the statistics of the port. J.G.C. does more than reel off reams of dry figures and tables prepared by unmoved, clerks'. He clothes his figures with some quite startling deductions. Imports through the Empire City port for the past year amounted m value to a round fourteen million pounds. Less than half came from the Old Land; three millions' worth were manufactured m the land of the almighty dollar; the remainder filtered, m from anywhere. Imports decreased by a million and a-half — not, perhaps, an unhealthy s ;g n — but a million of that represents a drop m purchases fr.om the Motherland, while U.S.A. is hardly concerned about a mere decrease m business of £85,000. For the same period effete old. John Bull bought our produce to the tune of 35 millions, while affluent Uncle Sam wrote out his cheque for a lordly half-million m return for goods received.

Chairman Cobbe wants to know whether "Rule Britannia" is going out of date m favor of "We won the war." He presents the cold figures, which are more significant than tons of, platitudes or multitudes of waving flags. Emphasizes that John Bull buys our butter and protects our trade routes — and leaves it at that.

A quiet, effective chairman of the Harbor Board is J.GiC, not at all obsessed with the interests alone of the primary producer. He concedes •that the city folk have a right to be proud of their magnificent harbor and does not object to a fair deal for those who labor close to the men who go down m. ships to thf sea.