“LOSING FAVOUR”

Taranaki Daily News, 20 April 1935, Page 12 (Supplement)

“LOSING FAVOUR”

new ZEALAND IN BRITAIN. TARIFF AND EXCHANGE EFFECT. In the past two years New Zealand has lost its place in 'the eyes, of Great Britain as the favtourite Dominion, according to Mr. George Bumes, a visitor from London. Mr. Bumes, who was for 13 years manager at Christchurch of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, has been living in London for the past five years.’ The main reason for the change was, he thought, that the British people were realising that New Zealand was not trading fairly with their country,, by placing heavy duties on England’s imports to the Dominion. A falling-off in the quality of foodstuffs exported and the raising of the exchange rate were other factors. “During the first three years I was m England, New Zealand was easily the favourite Dominion,” said Mr. Bumes. “In the past two years the position has been greatly changed. Formerly there was little or no difference in the price of New Zealand and Danish butter, but for some time past we have been buying best quality New Zealand butter at 9d. a pound, while in the same shops Danish butter is sold, and more readily, at Is 3d a pound. -New Zealand cheese has also gone out of favour. “I believe these things are due in part to a falling-off in quality, but I feel sure that they are much more due to the fact that the average Briton, who is always slow to move, has come to the conclusion that we have not been playing the game,” Mr. Bumes said. “He sees through the uselessness of our muchvaunted preference when it comes after a prohibitive duty. A large proportion of him is still wedded to free trade, and he only agreed to his tariff as a weapon to bargain with for trade. “As we and the other Dominions have free entry to his ports and put a high duty 'on his goods and make considerable purchases elsewhere, he does not see why it should be one-sided, especially as he realises there are vastly greater possibilities in bargains with Denmark, Sweden, other European countries, and Argentina.” Mr.'Bumes said that New Zealand’s exports lof foodstuffs to Great Britain were only about l-12th of that country’s total imports. Thus New Zealand’s imports to Great Britain were of little, if any, importance to the Mother Country, but they were a matter of life and death to New Zealand. “It seems to me like attempting suicide to send to England any foodstuffs except those of the very best quality, to purchase anything elsewhere, or to monkey with the exchange,” said Mr. Bumes.

“The increase of the exchange rate has caused very strong feeling in England,” he continued. “The principal bankers—known as the Big Five—whose business it is to adjust exchange, consider that in January, 1933, when the New Zealand Government forced the rate from 10 to 25 per cent., it should have come down to 5 per cent., or less. Some of the financial papers were very frank, as, for example, the ‘Financial World,’ which referred to the arrangement as ‘not readily distinguishable from an act of commercial immorality,’ and as ‘a precedent of which it is surprising to find a British Dominion guilty.’ “Our good name in Britain is worth vastly more than any possible gain from what they call there the exchange ramp,” Mr. Burnes concluded. “Speaking from memory, I think 90 per cent, of our exports go to the United Kingdom, but only 50 per cent, of our imports come from there, and the fact that our exports nearly double our imports only aggravates the position.’