New Zealand Must Earn More Dollars And Spend Less

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 12, 13 January 1948, Page 7

New Zealand Must Earn More Dollars And Spend Less

For many years New Zealand has drawn more from Britain’s dollar pool than she has put into it. Britain could afford to allow this before the war, but she cannot do so now. New Zealand can help Britain’s economic crisis by earning more dollars and spending less. It is not an easy problem to decide which imports from Canada and the United States should be reduced, as we obtain a large variety of consumer goods from these dollar countries. While New Zealand sells only a dozen main commodities to the dollar countries, they sell us more than 80 different items, some of which cannot now. be obtained elsewhere. Among the main commodities which New Zealand normally sells to Canada and the United States are wool, sheep skins, rabbit skins, cattle hides, calf skins, sausage casings, butter, grass and clover seeds, and kauri gum. New Zealand buys from these dollar countries a much wider variety of goods, including seeds, fruit, sugar, tobacco, garden seeds, stockings, footwear, cotton materials, iron and steel, plumbing materials, petroleum products, tools, wire, agricultural machinery, tractors, motor vehicles, wireless and electrical apparatus, leather, timber, tyres, newsprint, films, drugsi manures and other important items. What Can We Do Without? Any one of these imported items could be analysed to show its importance to New Zealand’s economy. For example, tractors, farm machinery and fencing wire are in great demand by New Zealand farmers who are producing food for Britain. If New Zealand cut down on these items it Would reduce the drain on Britain’s dollar pool, but it would also indirectly reduce the amount of food that could be sent to her, unless this farm equipment could be obtained elsewhere, outside the dollar area. Nevertheless, New Zealand is reducing dollar expenditure on petrol, tobacco, films and newsprint, even while there is no alternative source of supply. During the first six months of this year. New Zealand spent £6,000,000 more than she earned in the dollar countries, but since Britain’s economic crisis, greater efforts have been made to close the gap between exports to and imports from Canada and the United States.