THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 1933. EXPORT RESTRICTIONS.

Wairarapa Age, 16 March 1933, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 1933. EXPORT RESTRICTIONS.

Since the Australian Dairy Board has reluctantly agreed to’ a six per cent, reduction of butter exports to Great Britain, it seems likely that New Zealand will be constrained to follow suit. In Britain, a policy of restriction frankly is regarded as the only alternative to the demoralisation of the market. A policy of imposing restrictions only on supplies from foreign -countries appears to have been rejected decisively by the British Government. New Zealand as well as Australia presumably will thus be forced to the conclusion that the immediate aim of practical policy ihust be to obtain the best terms that are possible under a scheme of general restriction. Britain is reported to have accepted the principle of asking foreign suppliers, principally Denmark, to reduce their exports by twice as much as the Dominions. It is on this basis, or on any modification of it in their favour the Dominions may be able to secure, that adjustment must proceed. Every effort no doubt will be made to induce Britain to impose still greater relative restrictions on supplies from foreign countries, but it has to be admitted that increasing supplies from the Dominions account in great part for the position that now exists on the British market. As compared with 1929, for example, Britain’s imports of butter from Australia have increased by 137 per cent., and imports from New Zealand by 66 per cent., as compared with an increase of 17 per cent, in imports from Denmark. The consumption of butter in Great Britain has expanded remarkably, increasing in two years from 5,000 tons a week to 8,200 tons a week, but it is clear that as matters stand, supply has definitely outpaced effective demand. The position that exists in Britain with regard to milk and milk products generally was summed up not long ago by the British Minister of Agriculture (Major Walter Elliot): — If the price for milk to manufacture has fallen to half the price of milk to drink it is clear that the whole economic structure of the industry is menaced by sudden flooding from the lower level, which would destroy the higher level altogether. This would be a disaster to the producer, and before long a disaster to the consumer. It is no advantage to anyone to consume a product below replacement value, and milk at 6-Jd a gallon delivered in London is demonstrably, beyond all question of argument, ridiculously below the value at which that gallon of milk can ultimately be replaced. This is the situation which faces the milk market. This, and the supplies of milk products—cream, butter, cheese and condensed milk—which daily, in tremendous and increasing quantities from every quarter of the world, are hurried *to our shores. . . . These problems involve the acceptance of things which none of us would desire simply for their own sakes.”

In New Zealand, the serious and urgent problem that is presented by the plight of the dairy industry falls naturally into two sections. It is necessary in the first place to make the best adjustment that is possible at the moment. That being done, it will remain to consider, at a longer view, what may be done to improve and strengthen the position of the industry.

The acceptance of a policy of restriction. at once raises the question of disposing of an actual surplus of butter. Producers in this country, as in Australia, presumably will agree upon a levy as a means of spreading, their: loss. If the volume of local consumption can be increased, the amount to be made good by a levy will be reduced correspondingly. No time should be lost, at all events, in. shaping the best scheme of adjustment that is possible in the unfortunate circumstances. Both at an immediate and at a longer view, the question of improving the quality of cheese, and possibly of increasing the quantity of cheese -produced relatively to- butter, evidently demands close practical consideration. The whole question of exploiting alternative branches of production and opening up trade with any new markets that can be found must be goneinto methodically and exhaustively. These things have been talked about for a long time, but practical action, in the extent to which it is feasible, has now become a matter almost of life and death importance to the dairy industry and to the Domini- n in th 3 considerable extent to which it on this industry.