A FAVOURED DOMINION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3885, 28 August 1928, Page 7

A FAVOURED DOMINION.

BLESSED BY NATURE. INTERESTING ADDRESS BY MR MILLS. The Dunedin Chamber of Commerce welcomed Mr Arthur J. Mills, 0.8. E., head of the well-known London produce firm of that name, at a gathering at the. Tudor Hall on Thursday morning. Mr E. A. Roscvear, president of the chamber, occupied the chair, and there was a large number of members present. The chairman, welcoming Mr* Mills on behalf of the chamber, sai,d it was very gratifying to them that such a busy man as Mr Mills had found time to visit their city—a no mean city.— (“Hear, hear.”i They were doubly, honoured in the visit, as of late many of the business oversea visitors had not extended their ' tinerary to include Dunedin. They of the southern cities claimed that visitors to New Zealand who did not visit the southern parts of the South Island had not really seen New Zealand.— (“Hear, hear.”) Mr Mills was chairman of directors of Messrs A. J. Mills and Co., of Tooley street, London—one of the world's largest dairy produce organisations, with branches throughout New Zealand, Scotland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Argentine Mr Mills had been personally associated with the New Zealand dairy produce trade for the past 40 years, and his firm, then known as Mills and Sparrow, had handled the first shipments from the Dominion. The firm was probably the largest individual handlers of New Zealand dairy produce. Mr Mills had occupied the position of chairman of the London Provision Exchange on more than one occasion, and he had also been chairman of the Meat Trades Charitable Institution. During the war he had been a member of the Ministry of Food, and he had gone to America to take charge of important food purchases for the Allies. •—(Applause.) Mr Mills said that it was always pleasing and cheering to meet bodies of business men wherever one happened to go, either in this town or in a far-away country like New Zealand. It was always. possible to gather something of mutual interest and to learn something from each other, so that business coull be carried on better. One of the problems which faced people at Home, particu larly in the dairy produce busi-

ness, in which New Zealand was so interested, and in which rhe also happened to be concerned, % was to find just how the -New Zealand producer wanted to market his goods, and what his viewpoint was of the way his goods were distributed. Those who knew anything about the dairy industry would know that it had been through a rather difficult time, and that was not altogether the fault of the people at Home. It was the endeavour of the producer in New Zealand to get into a better position at Home to market his produce. It was quite proper for the producer to have a say in how his goods were to be sold, and what he was to. get for them, but the producer, whether he dealt in dairy produce or in any other product of the land, must understand that someone else had to eat what he produced. His own country could not eat all he sold, and he must not be too grudging in his appreciation of what the other fellow did in conveying his produce to the mouth of the consumer. If the producer in New Zealand grudged the other fellow a reasonable remuneration for what he was doing he was standing on a pedestal which would be upset, because in any walk of life the labourer should be worthy of' his hire. The speaker was of the opinion that a great number of the troubles of the dairy farmer had been brought about by his trying to stop the other fellow from'obtaining a little for what he did. The producer could not eat all his goods himself, and he had to depend very largely on England, Scotland, and Ireland. The produce had to be conveyed to the ■ consumer through the retail shops, and that was as much a science as the pro-

ducing. If it were not realised that the distributor was a necessity the producer woull have a very much harder row to hoe. The speaker sometimes wondered how the producer really wanted his goods sold. The producer had been through the trials and tribulations of control, and to-day he seemed unable to realise that he was now on a very much better footing, and that his produce was more sought after than ever before, but owing to the blow he had received he seemed unable to realise the better times he would have. The speaker had never met a producer who was satisfied with the price he was getting. In the dairy industry the outlook was brighter than it had been for very many years. The consuming countries were not keeping pace with their production. England, notwithstanding its increased spending power, imported less butter last year than it did three years ago. The threatened invasion of Russian butter had not yet come about, and it was not likely to happen for some time. On account of the uncertain political situation there was a hesitation on the part of outsiders to put their capital into the country, which was not developing as it should. Then, again, Germany was getting into a very much better economic position all the time. For many years—the past 20, 30, or 40 years—the peasantry and the working classes in Germany had been in the habit of eating American lard in tens of thousands of tons. The lard was spread on the bread in the same way as we spread butter. During the past two or three years, however, the Germans had developed a taste fof butter, and they could not blame them— (“ Hear, hear ”) —and to-day Germany was importing one-third of the Danish production. Germany was also securing the bulk of the surplus butters of Siberia, Latvia, Poland, and the countries surrounding her. That surplus, which would, under ordinary circumstances, have come to England, was being so largely tapped by Germany that the total British imports of butter were less than they were three years ago.

When it came to cheese, went on Mr Mills, New Zealand was on an exceptionally good wicket. Canada was their only competitor, and the exports from Canada to the United Kingdom had decreased since 1917 by 50,000 tons. He wanted the New Zealand producer to appreciate the fact that, as he needed the distributor to get his goods into the tens of thousands of retail shops in England, so the distributor needed the producer to continue in ever increasing quantities the production of butter and cheese in this country.— (“ Hear, hear.” His prediction was that New Zealand would double its production in the next 12 or 15 years, and it would all be wanted by the consuming countries of the world.— (Applause. ) As to the general trade conditions, he had not previously had the opportunity of meeting a body of merchants and traders such as he was addressing that day—he had been mostly meeting dairy fanners and directors of dairy factories, and as he had already told them, he had never met so many men before who were satisfied, and he hoped that they also were satisfied with their trade conditions. He would be able t take back to his fellow traders at Home a good idea of the general economic situation in New Zealand. He understood, from conversations he had had with some of their leading citizens, that there was still a fair amount of competition, and that they could not do exactly as they, would desire. With a country behind them such as they had—in his opinion the most favoured country in the world for the raising of natural products—whatever their present difficulties, he was sure they could look with confidence to the future. It had been 18 years since he had last been in New Zealand, and from his present observations he would say that their country was only just beginning to realise what it meant to assist Nature, and that its productivity would astonish them within the next few years. In many cases which had come under ’ his notice, Nature had previously had

to do the whole thing with practically no assistance. Mr Mills went on to refer to the more congenial methods of dairy farming in New Zealand, as compared with lands in the northern hemisphere, where shelters and artificial feeding had to be utilised for a greater part of the year. In New Zealand Nature was doing practically all the work. In the northern parts of the Dominion he had seen the progress that was being made in the pastures through the application of fertilisers. The results were astounding. If they continued to look - after their lands in the way they were now doing, they would add materially to their production without any further opening up of the country. (“ Hear, hear.”) The Old Country was steadily and surely approaching better times. Of its many problems one of the hardest was the position in regard to coal. Through that lamentable strike a great many people had found out that even coal could be used to a lesser degree than formerly, and now the industry was suffering from a want of buyers. He had been on the Continent during the strike, and he had found that there had been great jubiliation in Europe over the unrest. The Continent had turned out coal at its limit, and once it was started it could not be stopped. This had recoiled very heavily on the people who had brought the strike about hoping to obtain better conditions. There was now a large army of unemployed. Traders at Home seemed to think that conditions were improving. It was found that in foodstuffs credit was good, and buyers were sounder than ever before. They had every right to be enthusiastic about the next few years. Probably New Zealand was the same, and the country would steadily progress. He thought that it would be found that his optimism would be borne out.

On the motion of Mr A. H. Allen, vice-president of the chamber, a hearty vote of thanks was passed to Mr Mills for his address. In acknowledging the vote of thanks Mr Mills said, referring to a remark of Mr Allen regarding the high quality of New Zealand butter, that New Zealand very largely, owing to its wonderful climatic conditions, produced what were the finest foodstuffs of their kind in the world. The grading of the Government . graders was excellently done, and there was no butter which stood up to its grade better than New Zealand. In addition to the improvement in the consuming powers of Germany, the United States was rapidly’ approaching a condition when it needed more butter and milk foods generally. He foresaw a steady increase in New’ Zealand dairy products going to the States, notwithstanding the exorbitant protective tariff which they had against the Dominion. — (Applause.) The proceedings concluded with the singing of the National Anthem.