THE WHEELS WITHIN

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3304, 2 June 1931, Page 6

THE WHEELS WITHIN

“ Not only are the British Dominions trying to stimulate their manufacturing industries by means of tariffs,” writes Mr Harold Cox in the Contemporary Review, “ but also they are pushing the sales of their agricultural produce by means of bounties. Australia, for example, is giving a big bounty on the export of butter and is proposing a further bounty on the export of wheat. Simultaneously the Dominions are engaged in what may be almost described as a tariff war with one another. For example, Canada and Australia both have hostile duties against New Zealand butter. Similar movements are active throughout Europe. The world is, in fact, suffering from what is now known as economic nationalism, and unfortunately the people who guide that policy limit their outlook to the interests of the producer. That indeed is almost an inevitable evil when politicians interfere with trade, for the politician, though nominally concerned with the interests of his country as a whole, is in practice controlled by the interests of particular groups of people who are able to put electoral pressure upon him.”