HOPE TO AVOID QUOTA

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1933, Page 7

HOPE TO AVOID QUOTA

BRITISH PUBLIC 'FEELING

MR. POLSON’S OPPOSITION

‘OUR TRADE WITH BRITAIN’

MR. BAXTER DISILLUSIONED

(By Wire— Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington,- Last Night. 'Our trade must be with Britain, and I hope no support will be given the proposals for a quota on our exports, because I am satisfied that a plan of that kind would wreck us; at all events it would stagnate our primary industry for many years,” said Mr. W. J. Polson (Ind., Stratford) in the House of. Representatives to-day when speaking in the World Conference debate. Mr. Polson referred to the suitability of New Zealand as a cheese-producing country and said that unfortunately that industry had been selected to bear the brunt of the attack in connection with the quota proposal. When one examined the subject it was realised that the attack was to maintain the existence of the British farmer. It had no reference to Empire countries but was directed merely to the United Kingdom. Australia refused a butter quota and New Zealand was forced into the position of being asked to face a cheese quota. The British farmer was more concerned with the Dominion s cheese production because it interfered with the home milk situation. The quota loomed largely at the World Conference, and it was stated that there were quotas throughout the whole of Europe. The question was to a certain extent an international one, but he thought it was an Empire question as far as New Zealand was concerned. The British farmer was largely a whole-milk supplier. Mr. Thomas Baxter, who recently visited New Zealand and who was head of the milk marketing organisation, had stated the position very frankly. He made it perfectly clear where he stood, and he used every argument in favour of the quota proposal. “He told us that it was either the British farmer or us for it,” said Mr. Polson. “Unless we agreed to a quota it would have a serious effect on the British farmer. . It was their market first and if we did not agree to some restriction we might expect some harsher treatment when the Ottawa Agreement was up.” . MR. BAXTER SURPRISED. Mr. Baxter had assumed the way was clear for a discussion on the quota, and Mr. Polson said he gathered that Mr. Baxter was surprised at the amount of opposition he encountered. “I am. glad to say he was considerably disillusioned before he left New Zealand,” he added. He had begun to realise that New Zealand was being unfairly treated in comparison with Australia, and he also appreciated the necessity for the development of the country. Mr. Polson claimed that both from a national point of view and from a statistical viewpoint a quota on New Zealand cheese was most unfair. During the past five or six years cheese imports into Great Britain had not increased but had steadily decreased, and that reduction had not assisted in regard to the price. It was proposed by the British Farmers’ Union in its milk control scheme to increase the price so that there could be an average return to the British supplier of Is a gallon, which meant 2s 2d a pound on a butterfat basis—a price nearly three times what the New Zealand farmers were receiving for butterfat at the present time. The effect of such a plan must result in reduced consumption. If quota system were applied it would grow to the prejudice of butter and margarine would take the place of butter. The drop in price of New Zealand butter had hardly affected the consumption of margarine, and lower prices would not affect margarine consumption. “I think we should point out the conditions to the people of Britain and rely on their common-sense in this matter,” said Mr. Polson. The Co-operative Wholesale Society, a big wholesale corporation representing the working class, was opposed to the quota plan. Mr. A. S. Richards (Lab., Roskill): Do you think they will come to your rescue? Mr. Polson: I think they will. I think they will disagree with the proposals. OPPOSITION IN BRITAIN. Mr. Polson added that he thought, a very considerable section of the British people would oppose the quota plan. New Zealand must not agree to any conditions whatever that would restrict expansion of the industry. Mr. W. E. Barnard (Lab., Napier): We shall have to, though. Mr. Polson: I don’t think so. He said that New Zealand was not crowding cheese into Great Britain. If a quota upon the foreigner would interfere with British trade as Mr. Baxter more than suggested there was another way out. Mr. Baxter’s proposals were for a fixed price for British milk, and if it was good enough to fix the price for milk, which represented 66 per cent, of the production, it was good enough to fix the price for the 9 per. cent, that was turned into cheese. Why swallow a camel and strain at a gnat? If prices were fixed for 66 per cent, and the 9 percent. New Zealand could say that she would fix a minimum price for her cheese export on a differential basis that would protect the milk industry. He contended that the British people would not agree to fix a price for the greater portion and refuse to fix it for 9 per cent., and he claimed that the whole question of quotas could be overcome without serious dislocation to the New Zealand farmer. The British cheese-maker had not felt New Zealand competition. The British farmer and the British Government should examine their own farming conditions. Milk consumption in Britain was 15 to 18 gallons a head per annum, compared with 55 gallons in Amercia, 60 in Scandinavia and 65 gallons in Switzerland. It was possible to increase the British milk consumption, but he claimed that one reason why it was so low was that 40 per cent, of the milk of British cows was subject to tuberculosis, as against a little over 4 per cent, in New Zealand. The Dominion could claim to produce a very much healthier article for human consumption. He was satisfied that a great section of the British people was opposed to price regulation. Britain had recently made an agreement with Denmark, and he . was not prepared to believe that Britain would not do for New Zealand what she was prepared to do for Denmark. In any case there was two years’ respite under the Ottawa Agreement, and he hoped that agreement would not be destroyed by any sinking of public sentiment., “If we state the case properly I don’t think the British people will turn us down,” Mr. Polson concluded.