TRADE WITH BRITAIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 13

TRADE WITH BRITAIN.

ENCOURAGING RECIPROCITY. CO-OPERATIVE METHODS. WELLINGTON, January 18. With the object of encouraging reciprocal trade between the co-operative organisations of Great Britain . and those in this country, three representatives of the Cooperative Wholesale Society of. Great Britain are qi.present touring New Zealand. They .are'Sir. Thomas Allen arid Messrs W. T. Charters and J. English. (Sir Thomas Allen is a member of the. Empire Com-mittee-of the-Empire Marketing Board, the Board of Trade Advisory Cbmfmttee, a director of the Co-operative, Wholesale Society of The New Zealand ■ Producers’ Association,

and chairman of the Co-operative Assurance Society of the Parliamentary Cdmmittee. of the co-operative movement;- " ■ . ‘ Mr Charters is a member of . the Committee on Industry and .Trade which was set up in England during the regime., of the Mac-, Donald Government, and : which is in existence. He is also’ a meiriber> of • the Advisory Committee of the Overseas Department of the English Board of Trade. Mr English is a director of the Co-opera-tive Wholesale Society. The Wholesale Society, with 1200 retail societies, said Mr Charters, did an annual trade of between £75,000,000 to £80,000,000, and had a membership, counted in heads of families, of 3,000,000. That meant the total membership of the society in Great £ - in would be perhaps 12,000,000. .The object of the visit, he said, was to increase trade between the primary producers and the cooperative societies on this side and themselves. They hoped to foster recij roca! trade between the organisations in both countries, and they ho- d to eliminate, as far as ‘possible, the many interests that stood between the primary producer and the consumers. Mr Charters stated that he and his colleagues would riot be transacting any actual business in New Zealand. They were simply on a tour of investigation with a view to the arrangement ■ of a policy that would return a fair profit to the producer, and yet enable the consumer to live more cheaply. . Tho.Ncw Zealand produce handled by the society in Great Britain was mostly wool, meat, fruit, butter, cheese, and eggs. Of these, meat was one of the chief items. Mr Charters did not think the Meat Control Board would affect them at all, except by controlling the shipping. It would give a greater confidence. to the British market, guaranteeing certainty of grade and regular; shipments of :produce., He could, not speak with any great knowledge of the Dairy Control Board, but he expressed the opinion that the prices fixed must not be above the world’s parity, •and the market, if it were above these, would be very \ He was emphatic on the point that New Zealand butter and dairy produce generally held a very high position on the London markets. -There was a very great' desire' in all

quarters at Home, he said, to promote' the sale of Empire, goods. The success of Denmark in the London, markets, said ; Mr Charters, was due to the co-operative methods employed by the pedple in that country. The Government of Denmark saw to it that the grading of ~th'e -'butter was perfectly done, ' and that the name on the cask denoted its origin and its value, but New Zealand butter was tb-day a very great competitor with Danish butter. The farmers here had but to maintain their high standard to make a still further success of marketing in Great Britain. 4 In the opinion of Mr Charters the 'Australian system of control was preferable to tho New Zealand system, owing to' the fact that the Australian control for prices to- be fixed in conference with the principal authorities on tho .other side. In the case of New Zealand, however, New Zealand practically fixed the selling price. That sometimes involved losing/ the markets, because the New Zealand prices were too high. Heavy expenses were incurred which might perhaps be avoided if some method of joint arrangement could be agreed upon with the marketing people on the other side. /