DAIRY INDUSTRY

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3555, 8 December 1934, Page 5

DAIRY INDUSTRY

COMMISSION'S REPORT. LONDON PRESS VIEWS. a THE CLAIM OF BRITAIN. London, October 26. The brief cabled statement regarding the report of -the Commissipn appointed to inquire into the difficulties of the dairy trade in New Zealand has prompted certain comments in the editorial columns of "The Times" and the "Morning Post" "The Times" points out that the findings are so important as to "ramify, so/to put it, from the Dominions Office into the Ministry of Agriculture, the Board of Trade, the Ministry of Labour, and even the. Foreign Office." On the subject of debt interest payments—the ability to meet these obligations depends upon the ability of the Dominion to sell her products —the writer, continues:—

"No exception can be taken to this demand. If New Zealand is to pay her debts, she must have a corresponding favourable, balance in her visible trade with her creditor. This is elementary, and applies to many other countries; Argentina, for example, as well though it is often overlooked by rough-and-ready enthusiasts for reciprocal trade balances." The writer goes on to quote that part of the report which speaks of the "flooding of the United Kingdom market by the dumping of subsidised produce from the Northern Hemisphere and from Australia." Claim for Preference. The report "accepts apparently as inevitable the decision to restrict imports," says the writer of the article, "and wishes the Dominion Government to concentrate its efforts upon obtaining the best terms possible for its producers. It contends that New Zealand has an equitable claim for special preference not only over foreign countries but also over the other Dominions, both because of the lpw tariff which'she imposes on imports from Great Britian and also because she does not dump her produce on the British market with the help of subsidies. Hitherto no claim of this kind has been advanced by any Dominion owing to the general feeling that it would be invidious for the British Government to discriminate between different parts of the overseas Empire. It will be interesting to see hpwi the claim for preferential treatment and the reasons advanced in support of it are regarded by the other Dominions." On the subject of conferences between representatives of the Dominions and the Home Country, the writer says that even the most perr feet machinery for consultation will not produce the desired results unless each Government brings to the discussion a clear idea of its own economic aims, of the balance it wishes to strike between various branches of production and between national self-sufficiency and interEmpire and international trade. In most of the Dominions there seems to be a similar conflict of tendencies to that in Great Britain, and a similar indecision in applying the criterion embodies in the Ottawa Agreements. "Yet it is surely plain," says the writer in conclusion, "that national production, whether agricultural or secondary, cannot be dovetailed into a group system until it is known what branches of production are of special importance to each member of the group arid to what extent other less important branches can be developed without prejudice to the major interest." Increase in New Zealand Imports. The "Morning Post" concentrates on the complaints of dumping from the Northern Hemisphere and Australia^ "The statement," says the writer of the leading article, "hardly does justice to the enormous increase of New Zealand supplies in the British market during recent years. In the first nine months of this year imports of butter from New Zealand were 10 per cent, larger than in the same period of last year, and 100 per cent, greater than in 1929. For the first time in history they actually exceeded the imports from Denmark, so that New Zealand has now become our largest single. supplier. Similarly, her share of the British market for imported cheese has risen from 70 to 77 per cent, since 1929. It is no doubt true that prices have fallen by more than, half during these five years and that New Zealand is receiving in 1934 a much reduced return in money from a much larger volume of deliveries. It is also true that Britain is buying 50 per cent, more butter in 1934 than in 1929, and that steps might perhaps have been taken to secure to New Zealand a still larger share of this increase than she has actually had. But when every allowance is made for these factors, it nevertheless remains that New Zealand has been doing very *well in the British market. "Unfortunately, we have entered into a whole series of engagements which practically bind s us to grant the foreigner a proportionate share of any expansion of our market, thereby substantially limiting New

Zealand's opportunity. That is a legitimate source of grievance which we ought to assure New Zealand of our intention to rectify as soon as those treaties expire. In the mean-, while, we ought, in consultation-with the representatives of the Dominion, to cast about for the ways and means of so adjusting our general policy in the matter of agricultural supplies as to assist her out of the serious crisis to which the Royal Commission directs attention."