TWO-WAY TRADE CALL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19135, 2 October 1936, Page 5

TWO-WAY TRADE CALL

BRITAIN AND DOMINIONS NEW ZEALAND'S POSITION (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. New Zealand is now exporting 50 per cent more butter to the United Kingdom than is Denmark. The United Kingdom is purchasing twice as much New Zealand cheese as Canadian cheese. New Zealand is supplying 40 per cent of the British import requirements, and is in an outstanding position as the largest exporter of lamb and mutton to the Home market.

These facts were quoted by Mr. William Goodfellow in support of his. contention that New Zealand must have a bilateral trade agreement with the Mother Country, and must purchase correspondingly greater quantities of British goods as her exports expanded. He was proposing a vote of thanks to Sir Richard Linton, the former Agent-Gen-eral for the State of Victoria in London, who addressed the Auckland Chamber of Commerce yesterday. Sir Richard Linton is making a twoway trade mission to Australia and New Zealand on behalf of a powerful group of English industrialists. Sir Richard urged the great importance of the Ottawa agreement to the Dominions, and the necessity for a continuation of that agreement in preserving the prosperity of these countries.

There was a very real sentiment in the Old Country attaching to the Dominions, he said, and the British housewife was fully aware that, in the Dominions, food that was required by the Mother Country was being produced by their British kith and kin. Yet he was convinced that, though we had taken full advantage of the Ottawa agreement, the Dominions had not scratched more than the surface of their trade prospects in the United Kingdom. "If we believe in reciprocity as n people," he said, "we must support a two-way traffic between England and the Dominions."

He referred to the problem of shipping, and the difficulties, that were experienced by companies in getting full cargoes back to New Zealand after carrying New Zealand's produce to the Home markets. There had been considerable talk of subsidies for British shipping to the Dominions. Actually, the shipping compam?s would be reluctant to accept subsidies as such. All that they wanted was sufficient traffic to make their services payable.