TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 424, 2 December 1933, Page 3

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

NEW ZEALAND CONDITIONS RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN Aspects of Economic Conference ADDRESS BY HON. R. MASTERS The main address at the annual meeting of the Dunedin Manufacturers' Association during the week was delivered by Hon. R. Masters, Minister of Industries and Commerce, who was making his first official viajt to Dunedin.

In Introducing the Minister the president (Mr James Hogg) said that the association had looked forward with considerable interest to his visit to Dunedin. He desired to congratulate Mr. Masters on being vested with the Leadership of the Upper House, although they knew that this brought with it a heavy commitment of duties in addition to his present portfolios. Manufacturers already knew that Mr Masters 'approached the problems which affected their {industries with an open, business-like, and unbiased mind, and that he was sympathetic to the welfare and progress of industry in the Dominion. Mr. Masters stated that he had a great deal of pleasure in meeting the business men of Dunedin. He did not know that it would have been safe for him to an earlier visit, but now that the paradise ducks were off the pond, the Post Office was in the course of erection, and the Auckland Training College, was closed, he thought that the way for his visit had been cleared. (Laughter.) Extension of Industries

In regard to primary and secondary industries, it was a matter of sincere regret to him to find there were certain individuals wlio were trying to pit one industry against another. In this country there was room to develop the primary and the secondary industries, with a view to helping each other as much as possible, because after all they were interdependent on each other. During his recent visit to London one thing that impressed itself on him was this: In the first weeks of the conference one noticed the international spirit which existed and the desire to bring about international goodwill, but as the conference progressed and dealt with matters of detail one was struck with the change that came over the gathering. As soon as the industries of one country were affected the international spirit gradually dropped out, and one realised there was a feeling of nationalism rather than internationalism in the conference. It became evident there was a policy in different countries in the direction of developing on the lines almost of extreme nationalism, certainly of self-sufficiency and trying to make themsrelves self-supporting in all in-, dustries, secondary and primary. In other words, they were developing a policy of living within themselvesa policy of frozen isolation. New Zealand was mainly a primary producing country,. dependent on the world's parity, for a return for its /products. Where , would New Zealand land if all countries became self-

sufficient and self-cpntained as, far as primary products were concerned; it seemed to him the time had come when they must give attention to the development of the secondary industries with a view to increasing them and to the utilisation of those primary products. How far to go in that direction depended largely on the policy of other countries. Protection Almost every country had some form of protection—quotas, quantifive restrictions, or even prohibition of certain goods. This policy, carried to a successful conclusion, as wo would.put it, would not be to the advantage of this Dominion. Recently there was trouble at the world's conference in regard to negotiations with Great Britain on the matter of quotas. He tassured! his audience that if a quota was imposed on this young country it would be a very serious thing. We had certain ilnancial obligations to Great Britain, and ho had said this "to Mr. Elliot, British Minister of Agriculture: "We owe vou a certain amount of money; we liave our obligatins to you, and wo desire to meet them, but if you impose a quota on us, stop our products, and restrict our produce, and as a result we cannot meet our obligations, the responsibility is on you, and not on us." If we could not meet

our. obligations the portion of the country would be very serious, but he had no fear in that direction. At any rate, the position, as it appeared to him, had led him to think we ought I to go further in the way of opening up other markets. Abolition of Duties He had been asked when he had decided to come to Dunedin if he would give his views in regard to the attitude of the British Government, so far as the agitation which was taking place in New Zealand ill connection with the abolition of all duties coming in from the United Kingdom was concerned —this, with the object of securing further access to the Home Country for their butter and cheese and other products. In view of the campaign going on in England and knowing everything that was going on in New Zealand, they bad, while in London, made every inquiry, both from the British farm-

ers and the British Cabinet, as regarded their attitude, and he could say without hesitation that the only : concern in Great Britain, so far as the quota was concerned, was to olvtain higher prices for her farming community. Britain had developed the agricultural side of her industries to a greater extent than most people iniagined, and he could assure them that there was plenty of scope redevelopment in British agriculture. He had only had three days out of London, but these he had spent in the South of England. He had been astonished at the vast amount of fine rich grass growing land, miles and miles of it, and they had never seen ! a hoof of stock. It was quite appar- j ent that the policy of the British Government was to develop her agricultural industry. From every j source they had explored for iniiur- ' mation they-had discovered that

there was nothing in the direction of asking New Zealand to do anything more in the matter of tariff for any ifetttrn Britain iriigiit get iii, the matter of goods coming front New Za'aland. He had asked Mr. Elliott de-

finitely what was the-policy of the .Government in regard to the matter,, and ho had said: "It was economically unsouhd for olie country to ho a huge farm and another aMm manufacturing e(Mhtry\ fell tjJlHiilQ develop the industries it could ecdnomically operate." Satisfaction with New Zealarnd

There was general satisfaction throughout Great Britain with NewZealand, for the .manner in which shift treated Britain with regard to goods coming to this country. He had a record of what Sir HofRM Wilson, head of tile Board Of f Mds, liau said at Ottawa. Sir Horace had sa,id: "Britain Avas satisfied generally with the New Zealand tariff, and did not desire it being lowered. They realised that the New Zealand tariff was largely a revenue tariff, and reductions might cause financial embarrasshieht, Which would prejudicially reflect itself ill Uiiited Kingdom finance and United Kingdom trade,with th . Dominion." Generous Treatment

Let themlook atithe position of New Zealand tqide as it affected trade in Great" Britain—-.that was so far as their imports were concerned. N 0 dominion had been more generous in its treatment of British trade than New Zealand. Of the total imports into New Zealand for the year ended on March 31. valued at £22,770,000, half had conic from Britain, and of the balance £5,324.000 had come from other British countries. If New Zealand were to offer Britain greater protection she could not supply the balance of the goods imported because, generally speaking, she could not produce them. On the goods which she could possibly supply New Zealand provided a sufficient preference ranging to 25 per cent, oil a

large number. For some reason, even with that protection, Brilain .had failed to meet that competition. That was not the fault of New Zealand. Ho had no doubt that the amount of Britain's* imports to the Dominion could be increased as a result, of the 25 per cent, preference. Enlarging upon this point, the Minister stated that wireless sets purchased from Great Britain in 1931 were valued at onlv £6300, and a sum of £120.000 was paid for foreign sets. He could give it'em after item showing a similar state of affairs. "When people ask_ ed why British goods were not, admit, ted free the reply was that over £ll,, 000,000 came from Britain and over £5.000.000 from other British countries, that there was a great deal that she could not supply if its entry were made free, and that there was a large proportion of trade which she could get if she made herself efficient. What was the position in Great Britain? She imported more foreign goods which she could manufacture herself than did New Zealand. She ;

imported foreign motor cars valued at £5,221,000, and yet Mr. Baxter, the representative of the British farmers, on his return to England, had complained that he went through New Zealand-in an American car. The position was that whereas three or four years ago 85 per cent, of cars imported into New Zealand were foreign and 15 per cent. British, today tho figures were reversed. (Ap_ plause.) He thought it unjust for Mr. Baxter to make such a statement without revealing the real position- "1 ahC'lold," the Minister added, "that he drives an American car himself." (Laughter.) Tho Quota Proposals It had been said that if New Zealand abolished the tariff she would receive better consideration than was otherwise likely in the matter of J quotas. They could ask Mr. Dowmc , Stewart whether he had found at Ot- J tawa that the Old Country had been

disposed towards making a better agreement with New Zealand than with the other dominions in spile of the. fact that Australia at the time had,ihad had a 25 per cent, exchange compared with New Zealand's 10 per cent, that she. had a sales tax of G per cent., whereas New Zealand had none, that, she had a primage .duty of 10 per.cent., whereas New Zealand had a similar duty of 3 per cent, on some goods. Great, Britain would not, irrespective ■ of. tariffs, . differentiate between the dominions. During fivenormal years New Zealand purchased from Great Britain £30.908,000 worth of goods more than Denmark, £50,000,000 more than Russia, £42_000.000 more than Japan, and £26,_ 000.000 more than China. In view of that the attitude of the Prime Min. ister and himself in opposing anything in the nature of a quota could be understood. Quotas on Foreigners

The first thing that should be done so far as Great Britain was concerned was this: If a quota must come—and Great Britain, n 0 doubt, had a duty to her farmers—it should be imposed first on the foreigner. (Applause.) If that was not sufficient to meet the desires or the neressities of the farmers of Great Britain, then let Great Britain say to the Dominion, "We want to have negotiations with you in order to come to an equitable arrangement in respect; to a quota) from the dominions." He thought no one in New Zealand would refuse to , enter into negotiations to. see that; the British farmer had a right, to his own market, and ho was pleased that the view's he had expressed were con_ firmed by Mr.'David Jones, a great advocate of the farming interests. Treaty With Australia The president had made reference to the tariff treaty with Australia, arranged with Sir Massy Greene. Naturally, he was pleased that that treaty had been well accepted, and he believed that, as a result of it the industries of this country would be extended. Only the' other day he was informed that an Auckland firm had got busy and in four days had sold no less than £SOOO worth of rugs made of New Zealand wool. Further with regard to the treaty, the balance of trade, between New Zealand and Australia had veen very unsatisfactory for some time. Previous,

t 0 the 1922 agreement thero was an unfavourable trade balance of over £16,000,000 for five years, or an average of £3,200,000 a year while for the last five years—l92B to 1932 — the balance in favour of Australia was £7,284,000, or an average of about £1.400.000, which was a»very consid_ erable reduction. New Zealand desired a better balance of trade and any treaty, to be satisfactory, must provide for a two way traffic. Revival of Trade He would like t 0 say a few words in regard to the revival of trade taking place, in Great Britain hi particular. It was no passing phase. Every form of indu'stry at the present moment seemed to be developing in Great Britain, and he could assure them that they could have nothing but ad_

miration for her in view of all her circumstances. It was very pleasing to see Britain going along on ortho. dox lines —in the good old British way —'not by Douglas credit systems, and so forth: (Applause.) Admiration of Britain Mr. Masters said if ever he had been proud of being a Briton, it wan while he was at the world conference, to see the respect in which the other nations of the world held the British statesmen. (Applause.) The unemployed figures in Britain showed a reduction, and there was no better illustration of the progress being made than the reduction of the number of unemployed. The position was not being brought about at the expenseof the Government, and in so far as builuing particularly was concerned it was being brought, about by private enterprise. (Applause.) A Note of Confidence

The mills ol ! Bradford were work, ! ing 24 hours a day, and the beauty i of it was they had no surplus stocks. \ He was confident, taking all things,;: into consideration, that there was a! good time before New Zealand. "After all," he added, "that is what is lack, j ing. We have any amount of money ; in the. country, and what is lacking is j confdience particularly in industry, i Money must be made to flow. I heard { in other countries what their people had been through, and when I came back to New Zealand I found our peoplo complaining very much more than was necessary—certainly more than anyone I hoard while away. It may be that we have not had the experience of depression and find it harder. I can assure you that nothing is to be gained by grousing. It is better to keep a stiff upper lip and realise that things are improving. The Government desires the unity of the people of New Zealand. It does not undertake its duties lightly. It makes mistakes, but it wants the credit of doing its best in the interests of the country. The criticism that we, get from some quarters is not very helpful." The Minister added that when ho and the. Prime Minister were having lunch with the directors of the Swift. Corporation in Chicago he had asked the. head of the firm whether he thoughtahat the National Reconstruction Act, would get the firm out of its' difficulties. The answer was: "The shorter hours and higher wages will cost the corporation 7,000,000 dollars, hut the President says it is right, and we. must back the President." If the Government was helped in this difficult period its task would bo very much easier. So far as was humanly possible- it would be his pleasure and duty to develop industries which would benefit the country. The chairman stated that Mr. Mas. tors had sounded a note of confidence which everyone should take up.