N.Z. ASSOCIATION

Southland Times, Issue 20661, 17 April 1929, Page 5

N.Z. ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL DINNER

DISTINGUISHED GATHERING IN LONDON SIR JAMES PARR’S SPEECH (United Tress Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright.) (Rec. 8.5 p.m.) London, April 16. Over 300 guests attended the New Zealand Association's annual dinner, including the Earl of Plymouth, Sir Basil Blackett (chairman of the Communications Company), Sir Montagu Norman (Governor of the Bank of England), Sir James Fergusson, Sir Otto Niemeyer (Controller of Finance at the Treasury), Sir Thomas Inskip (Solicitor-General), the High Commissioners for Australia, South Africa, the Irish Free State, and Southern Rhodesia and the Agents-General for New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.

Sir James Parr, toasting guests, paid a tribute to Sir Basil Blackett as chairman of the new Communications Company linking up cables and wireless throughout the Empire. In welcoming Sir Granville Ryrie he stated that the Commonwealth was forty times the size of New Zealand, yet the latter generally managed to borrow in London one-half to one per cent, better than Australia. Alluding to trade, he said that New Zealand had never known greater prosperity than to-day. The trade of a mere one and a-half millions of people last year amounted to £101,000,000. New Zealand’s problem was to find markets for the increasing volume of products. Personally, he still believed that the British was the best market.

Sir Basil Blackett, responding, said that one of his earliest visits to Britain was to Bradford, where he was most impressed with the need for nationalization of the wool trade. He believed that the producers of wool in Australia and New Zealand and the wool manufacturers in Britain could advantageously get together and arrange to deal with the increased production of wool and its manufactures throughout the Empire and the world. He stated that during seven years before the war. out of £454,000,000 which London lent to the Empire, £188.000,000 went to Governments and municipalities and £266,000,000 to business concerns. For the seven years prior to 1928, London lent to the Empire £500,000.000 of which £365.000.000 went to Governments and municipalities, but only £136,000,000 to business concerns. Therein lay the opportunity to study Empire economics, for obviously advances to business generally more quickly yielded profits than an advance to Governments. Sir Thomas Inskip, toasting Sir James Parr, recalled that, he made two fortunes as a farmer and a lawyer before he was forty years of age, while he was as versatile a politician as Mr. Churchill. Sir James Parr, re>sponding, suggested that Sir Thomas Inskip, if unemployed after the General Election, should write his- biography.—Australian Press Association. —United.