RESTRICTION OF IMPORTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1933, Page 6

RESTRICTION OF IMPORTS.

The protest made at Invercargill in regard to importations of oranges from Australia raises the question whether restriction of imports is a policy that in the long run is beneficial to the general community. Possibly their experience in regard to importations of fruit may make residents of Southland realise more fully the strong feeling in the North Island in regard to the far wider reaching restrictions upon the importation of wheat and flour. The truth is that the Dominion cannot have it both ways. If it is intended to give citrus fruit growers in the Dominion the first opportunity of supplying local needs there must, according to those engaged in that industry, be regulation of imports just as there is in regard to wheat. Apparently there is a considerable shortage of supplies of oranges in Invercargill, and the proportion of the recent shipment from South Australia allocated to that district will not make up the deficiency. If, as seems the case from the statement made by the acting-Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, the policy of the Government is to protect the local orchardists, such shortages are almost sure to occur from time to time, at least until the local supply can meet all the Dominion’s demand. Taranaki has suffered, in common apparently with Southland, in the shortage of fruit entailed by the embargo upon fruit from Australia, but recognised the embargo was a policy measure dealing with a many-sided problem. A good many people would like to see regulation of imports swept away. They point to the inconsistency of New Zealand pressing for unrestricted entry of her exports to Great Britain, and the setting up of restrictions upon imports into the Dominion. The Government retorts that its policy of protecting the home producers has the support of Parliament and that its advantages outweigh the inevitable drawbacks, which in time will be overcome. If the community in Southland or any other part of the Dominion desires an alteration of that policy it seems evident it can be obtained only per medium of the ballot-box.