DOMINIONS FIRST

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3555, 8 December 1934, Page 12

DOMINIONS FIRST

RIGHT TO BRITISH MARKET BEFORE .FOREIGNER. PRODUCE EXPORTS. "We don't shut our eyes to the4'act thkit you have a first duty to your own agriculturists, but we do say that the British Dominions should come next; and the foreigner last," said the Hon. E. A. Ransom, Minister of Lands, in an address on Thursday during the city of Wellington's reception to Mr Malcolm McDonald, Parliamentary Under-Secretarv for for the Dominions, and his sister, Mis s Sheila MacDonald. The Minister, wi.io was voicing the Government's welcome, added that when New Zealand saw the vast quantity of primary produce imported by the United Kingdom from foreign countries she, wondered sometimes whether sufficient consideration was being given to the importance of doir.ig- more for members of the British family of nations. Although New Zealand was only a young country she was a nation of great potentialities. She must develop and the Dominion looked to Mr MacDonald's department and those at Home to assist in the. development. New Zealand had already provided 'beyond tihe requirements of her present, population. She could comfortably support 5,000,000 people, and stagnation could not be contemplated. "BATTLE-CRY PRODUCTION."

For years .her battle-cry had been "Production, and still more production," and restriction of production could not be countenanced. Whether this country should develop along the lines of secondary industries or primary wias a, difficult question. If secondary industries were decided upon the outcome would be a reduction of imports from Great Britain. If the future lay in tjhe expansion of primary produce exports then markets must be assured. If the United Kingdom could not assure New Zealand of an unrestricted market, then the Dominion would have to look elsewhere, but that was not, her desire. New Zealand wished to become a part of the Empire in fact as well as in name. "I must ask you to forgive me if I have talked shop," said the Minister, "but I want to impress upon you the necessity and urgency of our maintaining an unrestricted market for our wares." AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE. "The Minister need not apologise for) talking shop," said Mr MacDonald in replying to Mr Ransom and other speakers who had welcomed him and Miss MacDonald. "I should like to comment on the Minister's speech." Mr MacDonald continued. "But I am not going to

do that, I am in agreement in principle with everything he has said.' There can be no dispute at all be-" tween the British Government and. your own on the question of principle.; I agree that development here is aV solutely essential. '>)•: "It is only a question of working out a policy in detail, and we must try to fit in -•with, each other's problems," Mr MacDonald concluded. [