OVERSEAS TRADE

Southland Times, Issue 21648, 9 March 1932, Page 5

OVERSEAS TRADE

EXPANSION IMPERATIVE. MR J. HARGEST’S SUGGESTIONS. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, March 8. “We must expand our markets overseas and wherever we sell we should endeavour to sell as near to a fifty-fifty basis as possible,” Mr J. Hargest declared during the course of his Address-in-Reply speech in the House of Representatives this afternoon. There were 4,500,000 people in British Malaya, he said, and they imported goods to the value of £80,000,000 annually, but of that amount only £20,000 came to New Zealand, while the Dominion spent £120,000 in the Federated Malay States. There was a much larger population in the Dutch East Indies, but New Zealand only exported goods valued at £7,600 to that part of the world, while she paid £Bll,OOO for goods imported from the Indies. “It is claimed that lack of direct shipping privileges is against.the possibility of increasing our trade in the Dutch East Indies,” Mr Hargest said, “but the fact remains that if there are ships to bring our purchases here, there must be ships to take our goods to the markets in the Indies.” “Trade with Sdviet Russia may be looked at askance in this House,” he continued, “but I suggest that the Prime Minister should seriously consider opening up markets there. We have wool we can scarcely sell and I think we should consider the bulk purchase of petrol from Russia in exchange for our wool. We are buying great quantities of petrol from other countries that mean no more to us than Russia does.”