DAIRY PRODUCE QUOTA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 26 September 1933, Page 4

DAIRY PRODUCE QUOTA.

According to Mr T. Baxter, representative of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales, a quota on dairy produce imported into the United Kingdom is inevitable, as the Imperial Government is already committed to it. If the quota comes into operation it will not surprise those who have given the question careful consideration. It is only natural that the Home Government should see that the farmers of England are protected in connection with the sale of their butter and cheese. It is unfortunate that those concerned were not content to “let sleeping dogs lie.” The raising of the exchange on London aroused certain powerful financial interests, who, while shedding vast quantities of crocodile tears, immediately drew attention to the fact that the British farmer was being sacrificed as the result of New Zealand swamping the Home markets with hei butter and cheese. This led to the British farmer sitting up and giving the matter consideration from an angle which previously had not occurred to him. The same financial interests did not mind how much Danish butter was imported into England, because they were directly concerned financially in the butter trade of Denmark. The Government of Britain is evidently under the thumb of the big combines, or otherwise it would only allow Danish butter to enter the country after the British Dominions’ supplies had been exhausted, placing a duty on foreign butter that would make the price such that the English housewife would look to the British Dominions for her supplies. The . New Zealand Government made a bad blunder over the exchange rate, and the farmer will soon reap what was sown for him through restrictions being placed upon the export to Britain of his produce.