GOLD STANDARD AND DAIRY INDUSTRY

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXI, Issue 2780, 26 November 1931, Page 6

GOLD STANDARD AND DAIRY INDUSTRY

PREFERENCE TO EMPIRE PRODUCTS. Commenting on Great Britain’s departure from the gold standard, a report issued by the Empire Dairy Council states that the immediate effect lias been to make a great many consumers realise that it is better to buy Home and Empire goods and to keep tlicir lritli and kin .in employment than to save a penny on cheap foreign goods and spend a £ on the dole. “Tho London management of the Now Zealand Dairy Produce Board was quick off the mark,in showing the public that the present is a golden opportunity for displacing foreign supplies of dairy produce and spending the money with the Dominions, whose purchases of British goods will handsomely repay such discrimination,” states tho report. “An excellent effect upon the public opinion here was created by tho issue of a statement by the London office of tho board, which said, inter alia: With the prospect of some diminution of foreign imports following the departure from the gold standard, wc desire to assure the public that New Zealand -will make an unprecedented effort to increase supplies of food to the Home market. If, as a result of the present economic situation, the Empire commands a larger share of the butter and cheese trade ,it should prove of the utmost benefit to British manufacturers, since the buying capacity of the Doiiiinions will be increased. “The statement proceeded to point out the relative importance of New Zealand’s import trade with Great Britain as compared with that of other dairying countries, and wound up by forecasting a seasonal total of New Zealand butter imports of 1,800,000 cwt as New Zealand’s contribution towards Great Britain’s food requirements.. The timeliness of the statement was reflected by frequent references in the newspapers of the next few days to the desirability of buying New Zealand and other Empire produce in preference to foreign produce. “It is not often that one sees public statements over the signature of Sir Robert Horne, ex-Ghanccllor of the Exchequer, and one of our most respected and eminent bankers. It is noteworthy that he made one of his rare departures from his rule of silence in order to say a good word about the currencies of. New Zealand and Australia in connection with butter prices. In drawing attention to certain misapprehensions that existed as to the meaning of the Prime Minister’s appeal that everyone should be vigilant in making demands for British labour and its products so that wc do not import 1/- worth of goods more than is necessary, he pointed out that it was entirely fallacious to interpret Mr MacDonald’s appeal as being directed against commodities which came from the Empire. “ ‘The currencies of Australia and New Zealand,’ ho said, ‘are considerably depreciated, ami purchases of wool, wheat and butter from these Dominions can be made on advantageous terms without doing the slightest detriment to the English £. Indeed it is of Ihe greatest advantage to us to enable these Dominions to pay their debts to us by encouraging the purchase of their products in every possible way.’ “Reminding the public that the Dominions. are tho Homeland’s best custimers, Sir Robert concluded: “Ihe nations of .the British Empire and our Colonial possessions are to be distinguished from any foreign country in tho means which we take to meet our present difficulties’.”