The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1927. PROPER PREFERENCE

Southland Times, Issue 20201, 11 June 1927, Page 6

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1927. PROPER PREFERENCE

In recent years the question of Imperial Preference has been overhauled by opponents and supporters, and out of these discussions there has come one general principle which has been endorsed in all parts of the Empire. It is simply that the basis of Imperial Preference is loyalty to one’s own, which means that the home-made article must be bought before goods manufactured in some other part of the Empire. This idea, which really is not new, but which has been discovered again quite recently, is adopted just as enthusiastically by the Old Country which realises that the Dominions must support their own industries first. To the people who buy in

New Zealand this may not seem a very serious matter, but when they consider the range of articles manufactured in this country they must realise that “Buying New Zealand Made Goods” is a slogan which must ring in their ears constantly, because in a hundred ways the New Zealand manufacturers can supply them with goods equal to those they have been in the habit of buying from other countries. The Mother Country knows that the development of New Zealand’s industries will be made partly at the expense of her own export trade to this land, but the reduction in New Zealand’s imports resulting from our industrial progress will also serve to correct those trade balances which set against us through our buying in markets to which we cannot sell in like quantity. It has been established that the development of the home market is the soundest of all trading, and this means assistance to the primary producer through the enlargement of the country’s industries into prosperous concerns supplying its needs. From Britain come messages declaring that the increase in the manufacturing industries is reducing the amount of unemployment, but the New Zealander reading those statements rarely takes the trouble to apply the lessons of those messages to the circumstances of his own country. Even if the unemployment figures are not large enough to warrant a comparison with the Old Country, the fact remains that every year boys and girls are leaving school with the idea of obtaining work and laying the foundations of useful careers. It is almost a platitude to say that no boy can obtain employment unless there is a job for him, but many a father who is seeking a place for his son will carelessly purchase imported goods when he can secure similar articles of New Zealand manufacture. He may even have saved a few pennies by this preference; but he has probably closed the door to a job in his son’s face. That result of his misplaced preference probably never strikes him, but he has only to think the matter over for a few minutes to discover the connection between the two circumstances. He is a penny wise and a pound foolish. His mistake unfortunately is frequently imitated. Often we hear complaints against the high tariff raised to protect the industries of this country. The effect of this tariff is to raise the cost of manufactured articles to the consumer who pays so that the local industry may have a chance to develop and become strong enough to stand by itself. Many men will openly deride this measure, and argue that the local industry will never become selfsupporting, and while they are saying this they are purchasing imported goods in preference to those made in New Zealand. In other words they are paying for the protection given to local industries and at the same time are perpetuating the conditions making the tax necessary. Can there be anything more absurd than to pay this tax designed to protect New Zealand industry with one hand while tearing down whatever good it may do with the other? The taxpayer who growls about the tariff should pause to think this matter out for himself. Every pound kept in this country assists to make it stronger. Many times we have heard that one of the explanations of America’s prosperity is her position as a creditor nation, which means that her exports exceed her imports, reckoning the gold entering the country as exports in actual effect; but while New Zealand does not receive large shipments of gold in satisfaction of war debts, she can come closer and closer to being a creditor nation by reducing her purchases abroad, though patronising her own industries while she is maintaining her exports. All these arguments point to one thing: the sound business behind the appeal of the New Zealand manufacturer to New Zealanders to buy goods made in their own country by their fellows. And we say that even if the cost is a little higher, the argument in favour of an enthusiastic answer to the appeal is not lessened one jot, because it is by this support of the Dominion’s industries that its prosperity can be forwarded, that the burden of the tariff can be lightened, that employment can be given to this and future generations of New Zealanders.