The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1937. Threat To Primary Industries

Southland Times, Issue 23375, 6 December 1937, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1937. Threat To Primary Industries

Promising to buy more Britishmade footwear at the very moment it was promising its own footwear manufacturers greater protection against imports, has, of course, got the New Zealand Government into trouble. In an address at Christchurch last Wednesday the Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) announced that the Government would take every step necessary for the protection and promotion of New Zealand secondary industries” and that, as far as the footwear industry was concerned, it had “got down to a figure which expresses its conception of the. amount of protection required.” The following day the secretary of the United Kingdom Federation of Boot and Shoe Manufacturers stated in London that “the New Zealand Government has informed the British Government that it is contemplating increasing the duty on imported leather footwear for adults or imposing duty and quota restrictions.” At the time this information “leaked out” (that is the term used in a cable message today, but Mr Sullivan’s statement was definite enough) the High Commissioner, Mr Jordan, had just opened a campaign for the sale of dairy produce at Leicester, one of the centres of the footwear industry in Britain, by telling the people there that New Zealand would buy more from them if they would buy more from New Zealand. When the people of Leicester read in their newspapers the next day that far from permitting an increase in imports of footwear the New Zealand Government was considering steps to secure a reduction, they were no doubt inclined to doubt the genuineness of Mr Jordan’s proposals for two-way trade. The New Zealand Government deserved to get into hot water over this piece of double-dealing; and it has got into hot water. But unfortunately the matter does not end there. According to a cable message printed this morning, “one of the immediate effects of the ‘leakage’ has been a setback to the New Zealand dairy produce campaign . . . Already it has been discovered that there have been subtle attempts by certain traders to belittle the campaign. It is feared this may extend to the hosiery and woollen trades.” It may be noted in passing that quite apart from the “subtle attempts of certain traders”—the phrase smacks of New Zealand House —a campaign run on these lines certainly deserves to be belittled. The point we wish to make is that the people who will be hurt by the failure of the campaign will be the primary producers of this country, particularly the dairy farmers. The Labour Government has raised internal costs to a .level where, to save the secondary industries from extinction, it is having to consider remedies that will injure the primary industries —which are, in all truth, the backbone of New Zealand. This is folly of a most dangerous kind. So far the imposition by the Mother Country of rigid restrictions on the importation of our primary produce is no more than a threat; but every false move of the kind the Government has taken brings the threat near fulfilment. And even if that vitally important issue were not involved, we still cannot afford to prejudice British consumers, as they undoubtedly will be prejudiced against the foodstuffs of a country whose Government speaks with two voices.