CORRESPONDENCE RESTRICTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1933, Page 9

CORRESPONDENCE

RESTRICTION.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Kindly permit me to comment as briefly as possible on some of Mr. Dynes Fulton’s statements. (1) “Margarine manufacturers are behind the quota proposals.” This is very likely. Margarine has little chance against- cheap butter. Also thousands of employers in the margarine factories . have ■ been discharged, and probably are how on the dole. Also, we were far better off when margarine was selling freely. (2) “Thousands of our boys have nb opportunity on leaving school.” True—and tens of thousands of boys in England have no opportunity either, and the more butter we send to England the less chance ' will English boys have of getting bn English land. (3) “Our debts to England cannot be honoured if restriction is imposed.” This is not true. We paid oui’' debts in full when our butter export was less than 80,000 tons. Now, with 120,000 tons, we are unable to balance our Budget. The more we increase, the poorer will we become. (4) "The British farmer produces only 45.000 tons of butter.” Quite true, but Mr. Fulton should know that there is a big scheme afoot to get Englishmen ■back on the land. England, owing to tariffs and increased manufacture on the part of foreign nations, has lost a lot of her trade, and- she simply must get a percentage of her unemployed back on the land. England will easily put 100,000 tons of butter on her local market in the near future. Finally, Mr.- Fulton evaded Mr. Hine’s question as to the possibility of raising prices by means of the quota, saying, instead, that tile only way to raise prices was to scale down war debts and remove tariffs. I suggest that it might be easier to ship our butter to the planet Mars, . It is . said that “whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make .mad,” and it is madness to think England is going to shut out foreign butter and lose the trade of foreign countries that is so valuable to her. It is also suicidal to glut our only market mid thereby get down to 4d. a lb. for our butter—and that is no exaggeration,' as time will show. But beyond everything else is the loss to us of England’s goodwill. What happened when we tried to boycott the English market? Do Mr. Fulton and Mr. Goodfellow know anything about that. Let us learn from the Danes, who in their astuteness realised the inevitable and while we were arguing quietly stepped in and made a treaty with Britain that has put her jn a sound position for the next decade. Mr. Fulton has journeyed to New Plymouth to tell us that restriction means ruin, but he has said nothing as to what the alternative means. I think we can paint that picture in two'words, namely, double ruin. We are. not asked to reduce more than a small percentage, but we are expected not to go on increasing. It may also be only for a few years. As things are over-production is the quickest method I know of making a country poor. Wheat, cotton, sugar and metals' such as zinc are now being restricted, and I think that many other staple commodities will shortly be added to the list. As regards butter, let us listen to Lord Bledisloe’s • advice, “trust England.” —I am, etc., W. P. KENAH. Urenui, July 20.