The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1933. GOODWILL MISSION FROM THE OLD LAND.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19604, 26 September 1933, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1933. GOODWILL MISSION FROM THE OLD LAND.

One of the most’ interesting developments that has come out of the visit to the Old Land of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Industry and Commerce, is the presence in New Zealand at the moment of Mr T. Baxter, a prominent official of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales. It will be remembered that when Mr Forbes was being pressed in London to agree to the drastic restriction of the importation of dairy produce into the United Kingdom, he suggested that representatives of the British farmers should visit New Zealand to confer with our producers. It was a happy idea and probably relieved an uneasy situation. At any rate the British farmers’ delegate, Mr Thomas Baxter, has arrived to open conversations and he can be assured of a hospitable welcome. He will be able to tell New Zealand producers of the precarious position of their opposite numbers in Great Britain and, on his part, will have an opportunity of realising our difficulties and taking a first-hand account of them back Home with him. Mr Baxter has already made himself heard, and he will no doubt throw much light on a problem that has hitherto become the subject of lively conversations between the political and economic representatives of the interests involved both at Home and in New Zealand. Producers in the Dominions are to be shown the other side of the picture. In an interview the other day, Mr Baxter pointed out that the British Government under the new fiscal policy is endeavouring to promote agriculture. The Agricultural Marketing Act, 1931, provides for marketing schemes for hops, bacon pigs, and milk. The hops scheme has already proved most satisfactory, as the growers have been able to sell all they produced at very satisfactory prices. The pig scheme, Mr Baxter explained, is designed to encourage a large pig population by guaranteeing prices based on the cost of production. It is interesting to mention that Britain’s importation of foreign pig products last year cost a million a week. The Imperial Government is also assisting wheat growing to certain limits, and by a system of balance it is hoped to give assistance to all classes of farming. As far as the Dominion is concerned, the principal interest attaches to the definite plans being formulated at Home to provide the machinery for the sale of the whole production of milk and milk products in . England and Wales, through the newly constituted Milk Marketing Board:

“We in England,” said Mr Baxter, “feel that you are glutting our markets to such an extent that such a scheme is imperative, and if the Dominion dairy-farmers fall into line this marketing scheme will assist their products as well as ours. It means that farmers will receive the same price for a reduced amount. Denmark has now been allocated a quota of pigs, and is actually receiving more for a reduced exportation to Britain."

It has been repeatedly pointed out that the present Imperial Government is definitely committed to quotas, and this point has already been emphasised by our visitor; nevertheless, Mr Baxter has hastened to assure the producers in New Zealand, that he has come to the Dominion in no spirit of enmity to the man on the land; indeed, he points out that he is most anxious to secure the co-operation of the farmers of the Empire. “The success of farmers,” declares Mr Baxter, most emphatically “depends upon co-ordination and co-operation, for so long as ruthless competition results in glutting the one market open to all the producers of the Empire, payable prices can never be secured. It is interesting to point out, that Mr Baxter is the mouthpiece of something like two hundred thousand English and Welsh farmers who are associated with the National Farmers’ Union, an organisation dealing with all , questions affecting farmers, though definitely distinct fram all political organisations. Curiously enough the supply position on the British market has completely altered while Mr Baxter has been en route. Instead of Ilome producers being embarrassed in finding an outlet for surplus milk, the dry spell has created a shortage. That is only a temporary solution, however, and will not invalidate Mr Baxter’s mission, which is definitely designed to create a feeling of understanding between the producers in the two countries. In discussing schemes with him, New Zealand producers should note the Prime Minister’s advice to “remember all the time that we are speaking to our best customer and that we are dependent on her goodwill.” The solution of the problem has not yet been found, but it must be obvious to ,all producers that chronic oversupply of produce constantly deluged upon the country’s principal market must inevitably inflict such heavy losses that may mean ruin to groups of producers who rather disapprove of the virtue of co-operation and understanding.