An Australian View of Preferential Trade.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12480, 17 September 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

An Australian View of Preferential Trade.

WK MUST HAVK IT OR STAGNATE. Bv A. W. Pear«o inJho Brisbane "Daily MiilD' We have two. large markets for most things, ono is Great Britain and (ho other is South Africn. In these markets at the present time we have to meet in competition goods from countries in every way bettor situated to obtain the trade than we are. Wo have to send our meat, and butler, and.frown produce to Kngland at n higher freight In vessels which take from 40 to 60 days, against, that from Argentina taking SO to 24 days, and from the United States, nay 10 dam

And what is Argentina doing? She is growing bcrf and mutton almost without limit of a higher quality than we can (nee London prices). She Ua» cheap labouy

(wages being ,css than half what we pay) She has lower freights on her railway! _• and lower taxation, and above all, cheapei and much richer lands. She has five million acres of alfalfc down, and is putting in three million more; she has water at a shallow depth nearlj everywhere, and she ias facilities for loadnig that we do not dream of. Lately w« crowed over loading at the rate of 66 tons per hour at Darling Harbour, and the paper said it was a recotd. Why, there are two elevators in the Buenos Ayres docks of 1000 tons per hour capacity each, and they can and do load at the rate of 10,000 tons fa a working day . of ten hours, ten ships at a time. * Aigentina has the finest dairy land in .. the world, , and is doubling and trebling lier output every year. Her cheap Basque "..this she' can," arid "is, beating us hands down. thousand hardest hands oome froiailtaly' eacii yfear, returning after the Cfops-are. •gathered. ' She' is. this'-year (from last harvest) exporting 'nearly , two and a-half- million-, toes of wheats two milJioa tons <il maize, and one million tons linseed, and in a few years she will quadruple her wheat export. In fruit, several lines of steamers are now talcing from ten to thirty tons of fruit in cold chambers each week to Great Britain. She is gradually monopolising our best rnarlcet, she has knocked our mutton down to 2-|d per lb, and our beef to per lb. (The present prices caused by the strike in America being abnormal, besides we have • nothing there). She has helped to lower , <>ilf miltton to the present value, and her . f® harvest has kept us from geting a higher price this year for our wheat, vln the case of,our nearer market, South Africa, she has done more. -She has just made a contract to supply, for six months, all requirements in South Africa .of beef St 2d per lb alongside wharf, Capetown or Durban. . §he is 'within fourteen days against our thirty,- and can and is supplying them with " horses, flitfle's, sheep, frozen beef, and mut-. ton, graifl, butter, hay, potatoes, onions, ' etc., all of which we could do if things were" more equal. Uruguay and Mexico are both countries which are progressing fast, and will in a' few years be pouring their similar produce into the sam& markets.. " The same thing happens with woods, minerals, sugar, leather, skins, etc. ; they ' 'can, and are, • supplying them, all cheaper than we. can.. Even the Japanese and ■Chinese coal mines are a standing menace to Newcastle; the former even during ' their present war has secured the coal .' contract for: Manila; of course, preferential trade " would not affect that, but it would with coal to British; colonies. Many of you, no doubt, have recently tead;" The Real Siberia," and have seen " what that country can do in grain and jdauy" produce-with- their cheap labour, fiven daring iittif war, Russia is sending 10,000 pairs of fowls and ducks, via London, to Capetown per month, and landing them, in the pink of condition at 3s 6a per. pair; all this helping to drag our prices: down, or oust us ; out of the British ind African markets.

After years of study and several trips loundthe. world, I am firmly convinced that ire pannot- compete for many years more on level terns will these cheap labour countries. ' This competition, with the world is the secrgfc of all our labour troubles here; ■what our Labour leaders should do is not to try to kill our merchants and producers, but to help them to get better and more iprofitable markets, and thus enable them to keep up the Australian / standard of wage and hours of work: .. " It is no use shutting our eyes to facts, either we have to reduce wages and in;crea§e hours of labour, get preferential -trade within the Empire, or gradually lose ./our.meu'ket, which, of course, means* ruin - If I were a Labour leader, my very gospe" should be preferential trade, under whie! colonies would have a preferential entry into' Great Britain or amongV themselvesThe gain is all on our side- I admit; J cannot see how the Britisher will gain mnch except, perhaps, in more regulai employment in the manufactures -and better i ■wages. We certainly should regain much of the,. South Afriian: trade, should havE • a'bet.ter.chance in Great Brirain. jmrf w<n-l " dor-a business in Canada. . Tin 'only shadow of a doubt I have is as re -girds wool. . A. large amount of our woo- ■ goes to ■ Germany and- France, and . thos; might be inclined to retaliate, or that; but possibly the German- factories • could'be shifted, to' Great Britain if they taxed- :ils; Merino /wool of the quality we "gyow- can be got nowhere else thr have*?where we are top of the tree, and long-;'niay it remaifi. so. We have almost a monopoly of high class merino wool, and 'European countries cannot do without -j- But you bear in mind that Bcrmg -good m-erino wool is gtown in South -"America; they, have 86 -million merino improving all the time. If would allow us a priority of it would mean this to us: " -Vait'areas of our land, which at present ■wpn't pay to cultivate, would be put under . cr6pi' l lands: -would be cleared, emigration would set in,, employment would be plentiful, machinery of all kinds would be required. Our meat and canning . wprks ■woiild again start, and instead of our present condition ,of stagnation and unemployed, prosperity would in a few years again return to our land. Don't pride yourselves on the idea which has;, been drilled into yon for years that ' you can keep these markets because of euperior qnality of productions. With of wool, you can' supply nothing better than other countries are doihg. In fact, the London prices prove they .-are not as good. -Make no mistake, there is no alternative, ' - study .it well; think over it well, and I / am sure you will come to the conclusion " I have. '. which is: trade arid prosperity, or free competition and lower wages, longer hours of work, and stagnation. ■ . y.