"TRUST BRITAIN”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19509, 8 June 1933, Page 5

"TRUST BRITAIN”

GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S APPEAL. ADVANTAGE OF HOME MARKETS. Addressing a large gathering at the Waikato Winter Show at Hamilton, the Governor-General, Lord Bledisioe. appealed for earnest co-operation between New Zealand and Great Britain, especially in matters affecting the welfare of the primary producres. • In the important field of primary production.” said Lord Bledisioe, ‘‘l rejoice to learn that both dairy produce and field rocts display a uniformity of quality betokening a high average standard of output. To a country whose every existence depends upon its export trade, this element of uniformity is of paramount importance. Any system of grading for exports or of organised control (preferably on the initiative of the farmers themselves) which makes for uniformity and the commercial goodwill or market confidence which flows from it, will stabilise the returning prosperity of New Zealand and add millions to the wealth of its inhabitants. In this connection I desire to express my unqualified pleasure at the enlightened decision of your Wa.kato dairy farmers to support the Government in making the new regulations regarding milk products and dairy factories effective and successful. They will, I am confident, never regret it. I am glad to be a confident prophet of better times coming . Returning Prosperity. “During the last fortnight th: e has been a more definite and reliable indication of returning industrial prosperity than at any time during the past two years. The fate of the world for many years to come depends upon the success of the World Economic Conference and the Disarmament Conference now sitting at Geneva, and these in turn depend in the main upon the vision and wholehearted cooperation of the two great Anglo-Saxon nations. Britain and America, over economic problems and upon a spirit of reconciliation between France and Germany which Britain is straining every r.erve to develop. Commodity prices are slowly improving with reviving confidence and give good promise of being e long remunerative to those countries which take full advantage of the teachings of science, which conduct their marketing m orderlv fashion, and which will sternly resist 'all temptation to public extravagance. “In due course the British market will absorb at remunerative prices all the best of New Zealand’s primary products, but competition with other parts of the Empire will develop under shelter of Imperial preferences as that with foreign countries abates, and therefore -nprovement in quality such as this exhibition fos ers is the acme of commercial wisdom. The high reputation of this Dominion for its sheep and its dairy produce must not be prejudiced by putting upon the British market third-rate lands, hairy wool, whey butter, or discoloured or cracked cheese. Sincerity of Mother Country. “What I would most earnestly press upon you is to trust implicity the absolute genuineness and sincerity of the Mother Country to offer henceforth such advantages to her Dominions, and especially to New Zealand, as will stabilise the prosperity of their primary products, and ensure for them definite and permanent advantages over their foreign competitors. Whatever may be the advantage or disadvantages to this country of any particular proposal coming from Britain to meet temporary market embarrassments, don’t allow any spirit of discord or lack of sympathy to develop between British and New Zealand prod) l ms. They are henceforth in the same boat, not as hostile competitors, but as partners in the scheme to develop Imperial prosperity. Never let the expression. ‘the thin end of fie wedge’ be used in relation to any trade policy between Britain and this Dominion. Britain is sternly and irrevocably ‘proEmpire,’ and if the separatist economic wedge be ever driven between her and any of the Dominions it will certainly not be your Motherland which will wield the mallet.

“The Empire Marketing Board, by its research grants and publicity work, p ovided at the cost of the British t'"Payer, has meant millions of pounds to the New Zealand primary producer. The butter publicity campaign of 1931 in the Midlands and North of England more than made good to New Zealand the f! 000 000 a year loss in butter export to Canada which resulted from that Dominion's increased export duties. New international agreements a-e every month now being made between Britain and competing foreign countries, such as Denmark, Sweden, and Germany. In every one of them a firrUt is being fixed to the supply of foodstuffs and raw materials which the Dominions are equally capab'e of supP’viiic. with the proviso that this limit shall be reduced gradually as produets of equal quality and description raceme available in sufficient quantities from differerfi parts of the Empire.

Pig Industry. “This is the case in the matter of pi" meat, as hitherto imported into Britain from Denmark. This pig meat must come prepondc ntly from those Empire countries which am supplying tin with her dairy produce, of which New Zealand is the chief. There lies, in fact, open to this Dominion to build up a great swine industry, with a confident market for its output, if dairy farmers will, without delay, bend themselvo- to the task of producing the sort of pig which the British bacon * "*n-ies and consumers vant.

“"-he same cons.derations apply to chilled beef, the trade in which is confined almost exclusively to Argentina. Experiments arc being made, under the supervision of the Low Temperature Research tation at Cambridge Universitv. which give good promise of the future successful transport of chilled beef from New Zealand to Great Britain. with the he’ - of carbon dioxide as a preservative in the ship’s hold to avoid det ioration from black mould, which, unfortunately, spoilt the experimental .hinment made from Wellington last February. This opens up the prospect of a new and profitable industry for New 1 Zealand, but, as in the case of pics, the right type of beef cattle have to be obtained from abroad m much larger quantities if the Dominion is going to be able, without undue del a- 1 , to secure her share of it. Such cattle must be fine in the bone and skin, free from excessive offal, and, above all. fast maturing. Need for Fresh Blood. Pedigree animals for these and other requirements in New Zealand cannot De secured unless farmers can see their way to change their views as rega 'ds the embargo now imposed upon tlie importation of live stock from Great Britain. There is no countiv which has greater need of fresh blood, there is none in which stock owners advocate, as many here appear to do, a continuous and uninterrupted embargo upon s admission, and there is none which, owing to its geographical position, is so secure against the possible admission of foot-and-mouth disease quite apar* from the absolute protection afforded by the drastic sys-

tem of quarantine enforced, both in the Old Country on export and here on import. "The maximum period of incubation of the disease is from 12 to M days, and the voyage to this country takes at least five weeks. Outside ihe British Empire there is no stock-raising country in the whole world which is so free from foot-and-mouth disease as Grejit Britain. In other countries where it is prevalent it is usually allowed to ‘rip.' The reason why such drastic measures are taken for its suppression when an occasional outb.eak occurs in Britain is not that it is a oangerous disease—it is. in fact, easily curable, and without any treatment at least 93 per cent , of those affected with it in Argentina recover—but that it is a violently infectious disease, and in a country so crowded with live stock and with so large an export trade in valuable pedigree animals as Britain, such a policy is deemed true economy. Appeal to Stock Owners. "As one who at Home has had. as a member of the British Government, the administration of animal diseases, and as such went in 1927 on its behalf on a mission to the South American Republic, where this disease is most seriously prevalent, I would earnestly appeal to New Zealand stock owners, ir their own best interests, to explore thb problem thoroughly before coming tc any hasty decisions on the matter.”