EMPIRE ADE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18259, 18 August 1921, Page 4

EMPIRE ADE.

A PATRIOTI&PPEAIJ. SUPPORT BRITISbL D usTRIE3. (Per Press Asso»j on ) WELLINGTON,Igust 17. In moving the adoptl o f a resolution at a meeting of I New Zealand British Manufa«. ers and Agents’ Association, thlpresident (Mr. Scott) stressed thea e9S ity of focussing public attentioilKi interest on British industries a Empire trade, also the need for\ roUB jng amongst merchants and tl public determined loyalty and Vlarged sense of duty which was lecially due in the present abnormtl Conditions to our kindred people Aid industries of the Homeland, rrhere was abundant evidence that Vitish industries were lighting fontheir very existence. A great dangA COnfronted us if the Increasing stoort of foreign products was perpeLed. The tim,e therefore, was most fortune for the Association to givwne weight of its organisation to th<L rvice of British industries. It las necessary to remind the pcoplcVf the Dominion that our individual,h_ tlonal and economic safety depenlj enormously on the trade support tlgave the Homeland industries. Whl New Zealand had continued to A tend her loans from the Unita Kingdom for development purposes concurrently she had not extended her purchases from the Motherland! though she had steadily expanded) her purchases elsewhere. By 1919 our loans from the United Kingdom amounted to £95,0C0,U00, a 65J per cent, increase since 1910. Our purchases recovered considerably, £11,839,000, but this represented only 38J per cent, of our imports, whereas in 1910 the percentage was 62 i per cent. It was vital to the producers in the United Kingdom that they should be given assistance and encouragement to get into the full swing of post-war production without being undermined during the process. Our duty, therefore, was to advocate Empire trade. The time was surely arriving when our united Empire might attempt to frame some of the terms of international reciprocity. So long as the units separately traded with foreign nations without reciprocal international terms they might do so to the very serious disadvantage of themselves and the Empire. Tariff revision would be before Parliament next session and an opportunity would then arise for the Association to emphasise the claims of British industries and impress upon the Government the advisability of collecting from foreign products any additional Customs revenue required. Our trade patriotism expressed in deeds should not fall below the standard of our war patriotism. The resolution was carried unanimously.