FOR BRITISH GOODS.

Southland Times, Issue 21178, 3 September 1930, Page 3

FOR BRITISH GOODS.

To the Editor. Sir, —I am rather surprised to sec in the report of the last meeting of the Southland A. and P. Association that the pointed remark of the retiring president. Mr J. C. Price, that America is our worst enemy should meet with applause from the farmers present. No doubt he meant, that they were our worst customers. I hold no brief for the Americans, but I have always found them hospitable, enthusiastic, energetic and honest. There have been exceptions, but they prove the rule. If Mr Price had said in referring to the inequitable balance between the exports and imports of New Zealand, America and Canada that the preference given to North American car manufacturers as against British, showed that the N.Z. producers and middlemen handling their products were Britain’s worst enemies, and been applauded it would have been more to the point. Most of them are vaguely aware, and some keenly alive to the fact that our Homeland and protector is our truest friend and best market, and the more we buy of British goods, the better able are the British people to pay high prices for N.Z. produce. A'et if you look around you see that nearly every farmer possesses an American car, having paid extra duty for it rather than buy a less ornate looking, lower powered British car. Sheer vanity in many cases, a mad craving for speed on hills, and complete disregard of the fact that they' are standing on Britain’s neck to reach up for a foreign bauble. It has taken more than a difference of 20 per cent, preferential duty to awaken the producers. There’s nothing like necessity to enforce economy. Because the emaciated goose that supplied the golden eggs wherewith to pay the enterprising, alert American manufacturer, is less able to swallow our lamb, butter and cheese or decorate its nest with our wool, why call the car vendor our worst enemy and cheer the loud speaker. Probably the manufacturers are next of kin to some British manufacturers, or may have failed to make a success of car building in Britain because of the horse-power tax-handicap to export production. There may be some special merit in American cars that no tariff barrier or butter embargo can completely extinguish. Perhaps if our goods had the same remarkable and exclusive features and qualities combined with low price, nothing would prevent a goodly portion of our products getting across the barriers and delighting the palates of car factory workers. I wonder if the foreign factories will begin to hum ominously with a hymn of' hate for New Zealanders because of the extra duty. Would it not be better if we all were more loyal to Britain and less vain and puerile in our desrie for the big toys for big boys with flash bodies and high speeds and plenty of petrol consumption, plus wear and tear on our roads?

Looking at the problem broadly, isn’t the American and Canadian farmer just as much entitled to protection as the New Zealand farmer?

Let us buy judiciously if we wish to sell profitably. , Wear our British roads —roads made by British labour with money borrowed from British sources—with British cars and trucks. —I am, etc., A. S. FLEMING.