MODEL DEMOCRACY

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1934, Page 13

MODEL DEMOCRACY

NEW ZEALAND ACHIEVEMENT EMINENT VISITOR’S VIEWS. PROBLEMS OF BUTTER QUOTA.

"I have been interested in all I have seen in this charming country of yours,” said Sir Montague Barlow in an interview in Auckland. Sir Montague, who was Minister of Labour in a British Government, has been spending some weeks in the Dominion, and leaves with Lady Barlow by the Wanganella this evening on his return to England. He represented Salford as a Conservative in the House of Commons from 1910 to 1923, and has represented the British Government at several International Labour Conferences. Among many other offices held by Sir Montague has been that of chairman of the Soldiers’ Pensions Committee.

Speaking of democracy in New Zealand, Sir Montague related a story of a dinner at .which he was present with Colonel Theodore Roosevelt shortly before the entry of America into the war. Colonel Roosevelt was criticising democracy generally as being dilatory and unpatriotic, and was afraid that the American democracy would not rise to its responsibilities in the event of his country entering the Great War. • “I asked him,” said Sir Montague, “whether he had ever had his attention directed to New Zealand, and I told him of your splendid gift of H.M.S. New Zealand. I also informed him of the fact that you had conscription before any other part of the British Empire, and of the magnificent part that your troops were playing in the war.

NO SOCIAL EXTREMES. “So you will see that I have always been interested in this great country. I have been interested not only for the part you have borne in the burdens of the Empire, but also on other grounds. As a former Minister of Labour in the British Cabinet, I have watched with great interest your social experiments. You have undoubtedly in this great country secured .an average standard of comfort and well-being for the whole community without the usual marked cleavage between extreme wealth and distressing poverty, a condition which I believe is unparalleled anywhere else in the world.'

“When this is coupled, as I have found it through both islands of New Zealand, with the real community spirit and goodwill among all sections in the community, I think you can fairly claim that you have gone far to solve many of the problems of modem civilisation. There is undoubtedly in New Zealand a better average standard of friendly cooperation than is to be found in most other countries in the world to-day.” Dealing with some of the trade difficulties being experienced by the ’ Dominion, Sir Montague said: “As to the difficulties of the quota, I am sure these can be overcome by friendly adjustment. There are difficulties on both sides. On the one hand we have our farmers in desperate straits. On the other you desire to sell your butter and other agricultural produce in Great Britain, which, is your main market. “At the moment, the quota restriction on New Zealand butter is not an issue, for, if I understand the cablegrams aright, the position appears to be that the British authorities some time ago invited New Zealand to consider the possibility of a limitation on a voluntary basis, and outside the terms of the Ottawa Agreement, of the amount Of butter sent to Great Britain.

"There seems to have been, some delay and difficulty in New Zealand being able to accept these proposals and that, naturally, has been taken by the British authorities as a l ' refusal. The case for a voluntary acceptance by New Zealand of a quota for butter on the basis of a limitation twice as great for foreign butter as for Dominion butter, as proposed by the British authorities, was forcibly stated by Mr. Coates in a clear and statesmanlike memorandum some months ago; he put the case for a 'voluntary agreement with great cogency. "But the position now appears to be that New Zealand and Australia will retain the right under the Ottawa Agreement to send as much butter as they please to Great Britain for the present. That right is granted by the Ottawa Agreement only up to the end of next year, when the whole 'matter comes up for reconsideration.

EXPORTS INCREASED SIXFOLD. “It must be borne in mind, however, as Mr. Coates points out, that since 1913 the amount of butter put on the London market by Australia and. New Zealand together has increased sixfold, from 42,000 tons to 256,000 tons, while the amount of butter produced by the English farmer has remained pretty constant. There is therefore grave risk, with this vast quantity of butter poured into England by Australia* and New Zealand in recent years, of a heavy fall in price, bringing with it an unfortunate result alike for the Dominion and the British farmer.” ' '. ■ . ■ “I understand,” concluded Sir Montague, "that the British Cabinet is now turning its attention to milk and cheese, and if this is so, the agricultural interests in this country will have to consider carefully how they are to be affected. However, with the great 'goodwill that exists in Great Britain for New Zealand, and in view of the willing and close, co-operation of the two countries, I feel sure,” Sir Montague concluded, “that difficulties of this sort must and can be adjusted in a true spirit of Empire friendliness.”