PRODUCE AND PRICES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13856, 12 June 1919, Page 5

PRODUCE AND PRICES.

NEW ZEAIiAND'S HANDICAP.

'.YRVEK HAD A FA llα PEAL.

Some observations on the commercial devlopmcnt of New Zealand and the prices or Dominion products here and at Home were made, by Major W. A. Chappie, formerly M.l', for Tuapeka, who for sevral years past has been a resident of the Old Country, having occupied a seat in the House of Commons as member for Stirlingshire fur some years. Major Chappie is at present visiting Auckland. .New Zealand, said Major Chappie, had never had a "fair deal' - in the Home markets, and things were worse during the war. .He saw :>UO Southdown sheep on the Sussex downs six or eight mouths ago, and, iv answer to his enquiry, the owner said lie had sold them to the butcher for i'<> each. "Was .New Zealand, he asked, getting anything approaching that .for its mutton' Iv the London 'limes of a recent date wool was recorded as having been sold at auction for Os .Id per pound. What was the New Zealand grower getting.' Home prices, he thought, would come down, but the prices that the primary producers were getting here would rise, because they had not been commensurate with the prices in the world \s markets.

A leading banker in London, said Major Chappie, had informed him on the- eve of his departure for New Zealand that he had just .returned from South America., after an exhaustive enquiry into South American securities and prospects, and. he had found that the number of sheep had been reduced in the Argentine from 76,000,000 to ;',4,000,000. The demand by the Central I'owers for wool would be unprecedented, and must be supplied. They had been using paper instead of wool for some time past.

The demand for wool and all New Zealand primary products, said Major Chappie, would keep up, and prices here seemed certain to remain at their present level, or might even rise. They could hardly fall for sevral years to ■come. The quality of New Zealand wool, butter, cheese, lamb and mutton was not excelled by that of any country in the world that sent its products to Britain.

Major Chappie said that in his opinion the prices for New Zealand's products had never been right, and would never be. right until all the primary producers combined, and, through a representative association, went into the world's markets as one seller, powerful enough to make its demands effective, lie had had, lie added, many interviews with Lord Devonport, chairman of the I'ort of .London Authority, on the facilities for fair treatment in London for New Zealand products, and he was sure that what was wanted was unity

at this end—one organisation, one policy, one voice, and a determination that would not be baulked. New Zealand's reputation stood so high, and her products were so well known and appreciated, that they should find their way to the homes of British and foreign consumers, with lesser and fewer leakages on the way.