AUSTRALIA’S CHALLENGE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20000, 7 January 1935, Page 6

AUSTRALIA’S CHALLENGE.

If the Australian Government has replied to the Imperial Government on the lines suggested in the cable messages this morning, British statesmanship will be quite justified in accepting the Australian basis of computation which may result in the Australian people being invited to ensure that their accounts with Britain are balanced. A message from Melbourne this morning reports that it is reliably stated that the Commonwealth Government has informed the British Government that should the latter take steps permanently to restrict Australian meat exports, there would undoubtedly be a reaction against the further development of the "Australian market for

British goods. Doubtless the challenge will not be ignored by the imperial Government, since the Australian account with Britain has always been very much on the side of the Commonwealth. The cablegram also insisted that Australia should maintain certain progressive all-round exports under the Ottawa agreement if she were to balance her trade and meet her overseas interest obligations. In reply to this statement, the Imperial Government will be justified in asking the Australian Government to compare accounts, and discontinue expending with foreign countries, large funds drawn from the sale of Australian products in the United Kingdom. Doubtless, the whole question in intra-imperial trade and financial relationships will be raised under the bold Empire development policy suggested by The Daily Herald as the bn sis of the National Government’s policy. Nevertheless, the Homeland has the right to suggest to countries that use the markets of the United Kingdom for the sale of the products that sellers must be buyers if mutually satisfactory trading relations are to be continued; at the same time, it must be remembered that the funds which are invested in Oversea Dominions are largely drawn from profitable investments in foreign countries, which have no other means of meeting their loan indebtedness than by the sale of their products in the United Kingdom. IRRIG ATI ON*—AN (TENT AND MODERN! Having regard to the lack of courage or lack of "enthusiasm displayed by the heads of the Public Works Department in relation to the adoption of irrigation schemes as solvents of the most perplexing problems associatedwith agricultural and pastoral activities in wide areas in various parts of New Zealand, and the urgent need for finding useful work for a large number of unemployed, it is difficult to believe that the Minister of Public Works and his principal advisers really believe that the value and practicability of irrigation, centuries ago, we were going to say, had evolved beyond the experimental stage. Perhaps the gentle reminder contained in the recent cable messages indicating that the authorities in Iraq are so satisfied that irrigation pays that they have embarked upon the £1,000,000 Kut barrage, will open the eyes of the blind. Says the report: i British engineers estimate that the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers could irrigate 7,000,000 acres in winter and 3,000,000 acres of varied crops in summer. Sir William Willcocks, the principal engineer in charge of the work, estimates that half of this vast area could be immediately reclaimed if the ancient system of canals and drains were restored. Only regulatory work has been attempted up to the present, and about 1,500,000 acres are under water. The building of the Kut barrage is the first step in a more extensive irrigation system. The people of Canterbury in general, and South Canterbury in particular, hope that the Public Works authorities will note the report of the intention to “reclaim the ancient system of canals and drains.” If they will take a leaf out of the Book of the Ancients, they may take their courage in both hands and push on at once with one or two obviously sound irrigation schemes in South Canterburv.