TRADE EXPANSION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 366, 7 March 1932, Page 3

TRADE EXPANSION.

Great Possibilities of Market in the East. PROFIT FOR NEW ZEALAND. The need for New Zealand to expand her trade with the East was stressed by Mr J. E. Strachan, head master of the Rangiora High School, ii\ an address to the Canterbury Fruitgrowers’ Association on Saturday evening.

While the Government for the moment was obsessed with the problem of balancing the Budget, said Mr Strachan, those who took a long view of the situation realised that the actual cure would take the form of an expansion of the country’s markets. Moreover, when the critical period was over and industrial life had been stabilised on a level of low'er prices, one of the main obstacles—the disparity in the

standards of living in New Zealand and in the East—would be removed. Enormous Population.

New Zealand was within tw'enty-one days’ steam of all the main ports in the East that supplied a population of 700,000,000 people. That was an outstanding fact in considering the possibilities of the Eastern markets, beside which all other markets sank into insignificance. Exploration of Markets.

What was wanted, contended the speaker, was the exploration of markets, trade commissioners in the East, the opening of business connections, a direct shipping service, adequate financial arrangements, tariff adjustment, and the establishment of goodwill. Before there could be goodwill, the Government would have to remove certain barriers in the statutes and the aggressive tactics of all Western nations would have to cease.

Japan was not much bigger than New Zealand, but she had a population of 70,000,000. There was a growing demand for wool, leather and foods. All the foreign hotels in Japan served European foods and in the Japanese inns there was a rising demand for butter, condensed milk and fruit. Conditions of import called for standardised packing and observance of the Japanese system of weights and measures. It would be absolutely necessary to have someone in the East to advise exporters. In 1927 Japan imported butter to the value of £65,800. The amount was insignificant at present, but it must be remembered that it was nothing a few years ago. The chief suppliers were Canada, America and Australia. There were possibilities in the exportation of condensed milk and cheese, in which America had been working up a trade. He had been told that the Japanese did not like mutton, but probably they had never tasted anything like prime Canterbury. Most of the imported meat was beef.

China’s Imports,

Referring to China, the speaker said that New Zealand supplied butter to the value of only £SOOO out of a total export valued at £74,000. The truth was that New Zealand had never gone after the market. China had a population of 400,000,000 and the raising of the standards of living to even a small extent would greatly increase her import trade Californian companies had a monopoly of the fruit industries. Consistently. America had treated China better than European countries had done.