The Daily News SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1933. AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1933, Page 6

The Daily News

SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1933. AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN.

OFFICES: NEW PLYMOUTH. Currie Street. STRATFORD, Broadway. HAWERA, High Street.

The statement made by the Minister of Agriculture in Great Britain, Major W. E. Elliot, to the farmers of the United States was extremely informative. Ignorance in regard to the scope and extent of husbandry in Great Britain is by no means confined to the United States. Judging from certain public utterances there is a good deal of misapprehension in New Zealand in regard to the value of the agricultural industry in the United Kingdom and the possibilities of its expansion. Some Dominion exporters have spoken as though agriculture at Home is in a moribund condition, and that England is content to have it so and to concentrate energy upon the development of her manufactures and shipping. It is generally admitted in New Zealand that as breeders of highclass pedigree live-stock the stock-owners of Great Britain are pre-eminent, but it needed a statement as definite as that of Major Elliot to bring out the fact that husbandry is the industry of third importance in the United Kingdom. The amazing thing is that it should have retained this position in spite of a fiscal policy which has made the prices obtainable for homegrown meat and produce largely dependent upon imports from any country prepared to export to Great Britain, no matter what might be its standard of living, rate of wages paid, or prices demanded for goods supplied. The second surprise in Major Elliot’s speech is that in the United Kingdom there are more men employed upon the land than in any Dominion. That condition may not be wholly for the benefit of farming in England. It may mean that conservatism in method means over-heavy labour costs, and particularly that lack of co-operation has led to duplication of work. Co-ordination in husbandry is, says the Minister, well under way. It is being undertaken product by product with the help of a tariff upon imports, and in some cases their limitation also. An improvement in prices has already been brought about. Moreover, the opinion is growing in Great Britain that in a “back to the land” movement there lies the most hopeful solution of the unemployment problem. It is suggested that the unemployed be given blocks of small holdings, tuition and supervision to be provided. Co-operative plant and marketing will be established later on, but first the smallholders are to raise sufficient vegetables, fruit, poultry and bacon for the use of their families. Unemployment funds will give them sustenance while the holdings are being broken in, and for those who show adaptability the way would be made easy for them to take up larger farms and thus become self-supporting once more. Advocates of this system of relief admit that in such matters ds the raising of mutton, lamb, beef and wheat the Dominions should be relied upon more than the Home farmer, though they emphasise that there will always be in Great Britain a class of buyer who prefers the Home-grown meat or dairy produce and is willing to pay a higher price for it. All this information is of particular interest to New Zealand, for the closer Great Britain approximates to self-support in food-stuffs the smaller the market there will be for exports from the Dominion. -The Minister of Agriculture made it clear to exporters in the United States, from whom Great BIT-

tain has drawn huge supplies of food-stuffs in the past, that the Government’s policy is to protect the primary producer in the United Kingdom first, preference to the Dominions to come next. When these have received their share of the Home market other overseas products are to receive reasonable remuneration. There is much food for reflection in the Minister’s statement, for in a little over two years the Ottawa agreements will have expired and new trade relationships with Great Britain must be entered into. Major. Elliot has stated as definitely as is possible the.policy which will actuate the Cabinet of which he is a member, and it is one that does not coincide with certain claims which have been made on behalf of New Zealand exporters. The importance of the markets of Great Britain to the Dominion needs no stressing, and to some exporters this importance seems to constitute a claim to those markets as a right. Major Elliot’s remarks are a reminder that the Home producer will have first consideration in future, and that in any present-day negotiations this fact should be borne in mind.