A LUXURY GAME

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1932, Page 7

A LUXURY GAME

PLAYING AT NATIONHOOD. DOMINION’S OUTLOOK. “New Zealand can have little influence upon‘the economic conditions ruling the world, but it has much to do in setting its own affairs in order,” remarked Mr. L. Ashcroft Edwards, president of the United Kingdom Manufacturers’ Association at the annual- meeting of that body in Wellington. “It is apparent,” he continued, “that we must accustom ourselves to a permanently lower level in world’s prices, and therefore it is imperative that much top-ham-per must be cut away if the ship of State is to weather the -storm successfully. Is it not time we faced the conclusion that one and a-half million of people can no longer afford the - luxury of playing at being a nation? “New Zealand relies upon the United/ Kingdom market for over 90 per cent, of her sales, and failure of that market would bring certain disaster to us, but how little the failure of New Zealand would affect the United Kingdom may be gleaned from, the fact that of the total United Kingdom imports z New Zealand supplies only 3.66 per cent., while of the United Kingdom’s total exports New Zealand takes only'" 2.93 per cent. It certainly behoves us' to maintain in true perspective our' unimportance to the United Kingdom in relation to some Of our foreign competitors, especially Denmark. ■

"Some advocate that New Zealand should seek nbw markets in the East, but I suggest that New Zealand, with its high production costs, is ill-equipped to cater for the. wants of individuals having extremely low purchasing power. Furthermore, do we realise that we must accept the manufactured goods of such countries in return for our exports, such goods being produced with wages equal to approximately 10s per week and working weeks of 57 hours? Is it not wiser at present to cultivate strenuous-ly-the enormous and valuable markets Of the United Kingdom?”