OF NEW ZEALAND INTEREST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18875, 30 May 1923, Page 4

OF NEW ZEALAND INTEREST

PROTECTION IN THE PACIFIC. RECIPROCAL TRADE. HIGH COMMISSIONERS AND HOUSE OF LORDS. (ITbOU ODE OWN COBBESPONDENT.) LONDON, April 13. Referring to Lord Strathspey's Miggestion that the High Commissioners should liavc .spats in the ucase of Lcrtls and honorary (itlos, "Cannda" points out "that the writer sooins to have overlooked the fact, that the Canadian Parliament has just reaffirmed its opposition to (he granting of titles to Canadians. Were the High Commissioners actually to bo called to the Upper House, therefore, Canada would be in rafher an awkward dilemma. Either its House of Commons would have to rescind its resolution, or, owing to the ineligibility of its High Commissioners for a, peerage, it would have to remain unrepresented in the House of Lords, while the other dominions were represented. I"he suggestion," adds the journel, "may not seem to be within practical polities' at the moment, but, with reform of the House of Lords once more pressed for. there is no saying what may happen beforo very long." NAVY AND THE PACIFIC. "Tho Navul and Military Record" dovotes «n article to the subject, of the I'acilio and tho navy. It is pointed out that the press in Australia and New Zealand is of opinion that both naval and military reduction has been overdone. One of the measures criticised most severely in Australia, it is said, is tho scrapping of the six "J"' submarines, local exports holding these vessels to bo well up to the modern standard of efficiency, though the Government declares that they are already obsolete, or will become so in a year or two. ''No one. who roads the Australasian papers." tho writer proceeds, "can have failed to remark their uneasiness at the growing:'power of Japan. In fact, some of the articles on this subject are decidedly alarmist in tone. It h freely admitted that if Australia or New Zealand were threatened by any foreign Power then- only hope of protection would lie in the British Navy. Either singly or together, the Uo dominions could not muster sufficient naval force of their own even to delay the approach of an invading expedition. It was for this reason that a Sydney paper was constrained to remark not. long since that 'the British taxpayer has the dubious privilege of paying- fire insurance on every Australian home,'—a, blunt way of expressing a self-evident truth." FURNITURE TRADE. Mr Thomas Prentis, who has been in die dominions on behalf of a largo furnishing ■firm at Rochdale, contributes an interesting account of his tour to "Ihe Furniture Record." 'i,,.*! "Despite what anyone may say about the results of war experience," he writes, "the Australians have a sentimental preference of 50 per cent, for British goods—if they cannot, get Australian. Both they and tlv New Zealanders are more English than we are, Thov are very *- prejudiced against Americans'and Japanese- There is business as well as racial reason for this just now. Both of these countries got into tie Australasian market 'with both feet' during tho war. Bub they threw away tteir chance—because their goods wero not up to sample. So that the chance for British goods in tho Australasian market, at the present moment, is actually better than I have over known it in alt my experience—despite what the pessimists may say. Bin, quality and service must be right, and the fact of British manufacture must be thoroughly mad« known. - "I consider Australia and New Zealand art good testing grounds for the small firm about to trv its product in overseas markets. Few "people realise that it is quite possible to enter the Australian and New Zealand markets from London, by dealing with thfl London branches and -agencies ot the overseas firms. This is particularly true of New Zealand. But here a word of warning. While you may start a New Zealand bnsisess going in London, you will need an agent to watch your interest on that side and advi-o you so soon as yo;i have secured your first, orders. THE TUATARA. * Two Irish papers -the Dublin Evening Herald and the Northern Wing—have published a story regarding the Tuatara lizard. Tho original story js from an American paper and is tho result of an interview with Dr Noble, of the American Museum ot Natural History in New York. According to this scientist tho tuatara is at least a. million' years older than the dinosaur which perished from the earth three million years ago. "The Sphenedon, or Tuatara,' it is '.further affirmed, ''gradually disappeared from all "but one of the islands, and on that one, Karevra, only one man knows where to find them. Sphenedon still lives on Ka'rowa because the conditions of lite on that island are about the same to-day as they were eight million years ago. lie hasn't changed m all those years, because he hasn't had to change. Sphenedon had no competition with predatory animals until recently. The greatest enomios of all tho prehistoric creatures -were mammals, who hrst evolved, five millions years ago, as small, rat-liko creatures. But in two million time these mammals had grown and adapted themselves, and the stand-pat reptiles perished as did. the dinosaur. Mlie record of the rocks shows that there were no mammals in New Zealand until, approximately, a thousand years ago. These were men and rats, which the men brought with tiiem." RECIPROCAL PUBLICITY EFFORT, "It is welcome news," says Tho British Export Gazette, "that;- in accordance with recommendations mado at the recent conference of New Zealand Chambers of Commerce at Dunedin, the dominion chambers have now decided to undertake concerted propaganda with a view to fostering Now Zealand's trade with Great Britain and the Empire generally. This action certainly renders the moment particularly opportune for reciprocal publicity effort on tho part of United Kingdom, Canadian, and Australian exporters who are interested in ttie market, and such propaganda should, in our opinion, be chiefly concentrated on tho question of price, for it is undoubtedly truo that, in spite of Imperial preference and Tmperial sentiment, many New Zealand firms are under the impression that certain lines of machinery, hardware, motor vehicles, etc., can still be obtained more cheaply from the U.S.A. and other foreign countries. An evon greater share of the £25,000,000 which represented imports into New Zealand during the nine months of last year would have gone to Great Britain if this impression had not existed." GREAT PROGRESS IN NEW ZEALAND. "Tarn o' Tooley Street" gives,, in -the Grocers' Journal, sotne very interesting dotails of the dairy industry of the dominion, and he says that allowing for its' area and comparatively small population, no country in the whole world has made such great progress in the matter of butter production as Now Zealand has done in the last quarter of a century. Realising the possibilities of the industry', the New Zealand Government has given every encouragement and facility for enabling the product to he mado and handled in such a way that it may arrive in this country in the best possible condition, and it may be averred without any fear of contradiction that as a consequence of this, and the splendid organisation of the industry, which is every whit as good as that of Denmark, New Zealand's best is excelled by no butter in tho world, and its splendid keeping qualities are attested by the. fact that if properly stored after arrival here, it is found to retain its richness and flavour for a very long limn. Its first-class quality has won for it a very high place in the esteem of both the track* and the public, and whereas a few years nqo Denmark could chum to "be the principal source of our overseas butler supplies, that position is being steadily and very surely wrested from her by the producers of the young dominion at the other end of the world. Willi great natural advantages, supplemented by constant Government aid. it is little wonder that the dairy exports of the country should have increased tenfold in the last two decades. Special reference is made to the Now Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, at Hamilton, "the- largest concern of its kind in the world, having a. remarkable history--one which is probably unique in the annals of dairy farming- in any State." The writer mentions in "conclusion that the interesting details he gives have been supplied by Mr J. B. Wright, European representative of the company.