TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20709, 6 May 1929, Page 6

TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA.

Relatively speaking, Australia and New Zealand are neighbouring countries. Unfortunately, more than the Tasman Sea divides them. The Canterbury potato growers are perturbed because, while they have"an abundance of potatoes to dispose of and there is a shortage in the Commonwealth, an embargo has been placed upon the admission of the New Zealand product to- Australia. The embargo rests upon the supposed existence .of disease in New Zealand potato crops. If a disease does exist it is only in such a very insignificant' degree that it does not trouble the ■ consumers in New Zealand. There can be no doubt that it is a purely protective embargo' that has been imposed by the Australian Government, dictated by a desire to keep New Zealand grown potatoes out of competition with the Australian product. " Potatoes represent an almost indispensable article of diet, and the .Australian housekeepers common with the New Zealand producers, feeling the effect of the embargo. At the present time potatoes are worth £l7 a ton in Australia, and the price per ton in New Zealand is about one-fourth of. that. New Zealand has more potatoes than she needs for her own consumption, and the growers naturally desire to secure the benefit of the higher prices that would be obtainable in the Commonwealth. As was pointed out, however, at a meeting at Christchurch op Saturday, the tactics that are being employed by the Australian Government are not unknown on the part of New Zealand. When the prices of potatoes were low. in the Commonwealth the growers in this country were not insensible of the advantage they would enjoy through the imposition of an embargo in New Zealand: upon the introduction of the Australian product. In the circumstances they have little reason, perhaps, to be optimistic respecting the ability of the Government, to which they are making representations; to do anything to help them in the present situation. But there is more than a question of potatoes to be considered. Here are two dominions, only a few hundred miles distant freon one another, intimately connected in their interests in many ways and having much in common, but the trade relations between them are not upon the close and mutually helpful footing that might be expected. Australia shuts Now Zealand potatoes out if there is a shortage in her own market and an abundance in this Dominion, and New Zealand adopts much the same procedure when it suits her. When in either country a primary industry is considered to be in danger of serious competition from outside provision is made for the protection of it through the tariff. The growers both want the protection and protest against the embargoes. They cannot have it both ways.*