TRADE TREATY WITH NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3854, 24 January 1928, Page 13

TRADE TREATY WITH NEW ZEALAND.

AUSTRALIAN DAIRYMEN’S

DEMAND.

MINISTER MAY VISIT DOMINION. SYDNEY, January 13.

At a public meeting at Murwillumbah on Tuesday night a resolution was carried requesting the Federal Government to ask the New Zealand Government for a revision-.of the whole trade agreement with the object of bringing an increased duty on butter into operation as soon as possible, and suggesting that

a representative of the Government bo sent to New Zealand for the purpose of having the matter dealt with at once. At this meeting an explanation of tho Government's policy in connection with the dairying industry was given by Dr Earle Page, the Federal Treasurer and Leader of the Country Party. If tariff protection was accorded to secondary industries, he said, the dairymen were entitled to adequate protection to enable them to carry on and improve their methods and conditions. The Federal Government had recognised that as just, and during the last four or five years it had steadily tried to uplift the industry and give the dairymen a decent return for their capital and labour.

Referring to the reciprocal trade agreement between Australia and New Zealand, Dr Page stated that six months’ notice on either side was necessary before there could be any variation. Recently New Zealand had desired to increase the duty on Australian flour by £l, and the Commonwealth Government had offered no objection; yet when Australia wanted to increase the duty on New Zealand butter there was an outcry from the Dominion. He suggested that the Federal Government should send a representative to New Zealand with a view to the revision of the whole treaty. The New Zealand dairymen, he declared, were not ■benefiting by the export to Australia; it was only the speculators who were benefi .ing.

A proposal was made after the meeting that the Minister for Customs, Mr Pratton, should visit the Dominion to go into the matter with the Minister and afford any assistance in his power. Mr Green, like Dr Earle Page, is a member of the Country Party. According to the Sydney Sun, another suggestion is that if the Minister consents to make the trip a couple of dairymen should be sent with him. “It could then be pointed out that the Homo matket primarily should belong to the local producer, that New Zealand dairymen can gain nothing by adopting a hostile attitude, and that the two countries have everything to gain by co-operating in placing their export surplus on the London market.