MAN ON THE LAND

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19172, 1 December 1927, Page 14

MAN ON THE LAND

MR AMERY'S ADDRESS.

MARKETING OUR PRODUCTS.

Primary industries were well represented in the gathering of farmers in the City Council Chambers yesterday afternoon when the Rt. Hon. L. S. Amery, Secretary of State for the Dominions, delivered an interesting address in which ho touched on tho subject of an extension of the principle of Bmpiro preference. Among those present were Mr W. J. Poison, Dominion president of the Farmers' Union. Mr E Hay, president of the Canterbury A. and P. Association, presided over a largo attendance. Ho said it was pleasing to see such a large gathering of farmers in view of the busy time at present. The occasion was unique. No Secretary of State for the Dominions had ever visited Christchurch before. The Farmers Union, Sheepowners' Union, and Canterbury A. and P. Association were represented at the meeting. Mr Poison said that the farmers ot the Dominion desired to associate themselves with the civic reception given to the distinguished visitor earlier in the day. The Prime Minister had told Mr Amery that they desired to live and trade within tho Empire. The primary producer was concerned greatly with the markets overseas and wanted further reciprocity in Empire trade. They looked on Mr Amery as an Ambassador who might be able to assist them in this connexion. His visit was looked on by farmers as a most important one, out at the same time the producers here realised the difficulties being faced by British farmers. On his voyage to Canada Mr Amery would pass by Fiji, a country where trade was very quiet. He would also see Hawaii, a land teeming with people, where trade was goofl. The speaker said that it was realised that, unless preference was piven, trade within the Empire would not go ahead as it should. "Bound up With Problems." The subject was bound up with finance tariffs, labour conditions, and other problems. It might be possible to call a conference from all parts of the Empire of representative producers, with the aid of the Empire Marketing Board. These problems dictated rural conditions. By getting together some of thorn-might be solved, and this was the suggestion of the Union. There had been a good deal of feeling as_to what was the best banking system for New Zealand. Some research by such a convention as was being suggested might be fruitful. A great question just now was as to whether arbitration should he voluntary, as in America and England, or compulsory, as in the Dominion at present. This matter might profitably be discussed. There were differences as to how our products should be marketed, and this was a question in which farmers would like further enlightenment. The opinion had been expressed by some politicians that we had reached the limit in absorbing migrants on the land, but uhere was also a belief widely held that many thousands more could be absorbed. Failure of the producer reacted tremendously on the towns, and the stimulation of rural production was necessary. What was needed was a definite plan, which might be worked out at the conference proposed by the farmers of New Zealand. Mr H. D. Acland, president of the Sheep Owners'. Federation, thanked Mr Amery for hia attention and said that any measure of reciprocity given to New Zealand would be appreciated by the producers. He regarded Mr Amery's visit as an historical event. "Mainstay of Civilisation." Mr Amery said he was very glad to have the opportunity of meeting such, a representative gathering of those engaged in' agriculture, which was the mainstay of all civilisation, and of vital importance, not only to New Zealand, but to the whole Empire. Its peculiar importance was being widely realised to-day. In the past few years agriculture had been rather overshadowed by the development of secondary industries. There was the great problem of unemployment, which was largely due to a lop-sided development of the secondary industries. This had taken place, particularly in the British Empire, or, at any rate, in that part of it peopled by those of our race. Not only in Britain, itself had agriculture been allowed to decline, but it had dwindled in other parts of the Empire. There were fewer agriculturists in tho British Empire among its 65,000,000 white people than in one European country—France. If industry and employment were to be put on a sound foundation again, the problem had to be tackled on the basis of a solid establishment of agriculture. In

very large measure, as Mr Poison had » said, the difficulties of farmers were the same all over the Empire. There Was a large sub-stratum of common aims and difficulties. He would like to take the proposal advanced by Mr Polson into consideration, to see how far they could go with it. Only in the last few weeks, as the outcome of ,a discussion of the Imperial Agricultural Research Committee, a sub-com-mittee had been set up to go into the question .of the. economics of agriculture. This aspect, touched upon by Mr Poison, had been in their minds, and they were disposed to do what rould be done in this way. Speaking in London lately, he had paid that perhaps the time had come for an Imperial Farmers' Union, to serve the purpose of those whose interests were so largely similar.

Problem of Markets. "The problem, of course, is all the time that of markets," said Mr Amery. "Mr Poison has said truly that the producer must keep in mind the world market." The producer must be able ultimately to eelf his goods in freo competition with the outside world. The speaker's idea of. Empire preferenco had never been as a shelter for inefficiency or for the exclusion of foreign trade. It was to give industry a chance of building up efficiency., and competing, so that it could grow up and compete ultimately without any preference whatever. By giving our goods a secure market they would be receiving a better chance of ultimately capturing markets outside. "We shall advance further along the road of preference than where we have reached at present," said Mr Amery. "The extension of preference would give a fair chance to your efficiency, but would not be for the purpose of bolstering up production if it was not efficient." The whole trend had been to give New Zealand a better market in Great Britain. "We are trying to help the Empire producer to get- a better market," eaid Mr Amery. "A large part, of this work is that of publicity and education. The form of advertising favoured is posters which illustrate New Zealand-industries, always as a text—a' picture—for the idea to ouy from the Empire, because your money comes back to you. This publicity was • bearing fruit. At pre»ent £150,000 a year was being spent on the fostering of the idea. Empire Shopping Weeks were a common way of promoting Empire trade. In a particular city customers were asked to concentrate on the buying of Empire goods. It was a habit that, once started.continued. It only required a little insistence on the part of the purchaser to tbake the shopkeeper out of his gnjove, , That sort of campaign was Mdoubtodly of great value, so long as m goods were of satisfactory quality

Cold Storage. The matter of low temperature research, which was of vital importance to New Zealand, had been given a great deal of attention, and we were by no means at the end of our knowledge in the development of cold storage. The sum of £50,000, the expenditure of which was to be spread over a number of years, had been allocated for the investigation of these problems. Attention was also being given to a number of other problems. For instance, the British Government was cooperating with various Dominion Governments in cold storage research work, and horticultural research was another question to which attention was being given, including the keeping qualities of fruit, control of pests, and entomological research. In this connexion he hoped to open in a few days a new department in Nelson in conjunction with the Cawthron Institute, and in connexion with which the Board was giving financial assistance. The idea of this Department was to study the best methods for the control of noxious weeds. Animal breeding and animal husbandry were being studied in Britain and attention was also being given to the study of the mineral contents of natural pastures. It was desired to know why, for instance, stock in certain districts instead of thriving on pastures sickened and failed to make the progress they should. When it was discovered what the deficiency was, it was hoped to be able to rectify the matter and so alter the whole countryside concerned. A whole series of investigations was being carried out, one little discovery in connexion with which might mean the saving of thousands of pounds to the Empire. Grub in Australian Grapes. Study had been given to the prevalence of grub in South Australian sultanas and raisins in co-operation with the Australian Government. It had been found that there was no danger of the grub entering the fruit in Australia or of affecting the fruit on board steamers. Ultimately it was learned that the trouble was brought about in the British sheds by the size of the wire mesh • on incandescent lamps. This mesh was big enough to allow the natural enemies of the moth which caused the damage to the fruit to get inside to the flame and thus perish, 'while it was too small to enable the moth itself to commit suicide. The matter was quickly rectified by altering the size of the mesh, Australia being thereby benefited to the extent of thousands of pounds annually. The Board was also experimenting in vacuum storage of dairy produce, milk powders, and other New Zealand products.

The Board was looking into the raising of pedigree stock for export ; so as to keep overseas farmers supplied with fresh stock. Britain was still the best country in the world for raising qfich stock, but £he export of these animals had for some time been retarded owing to the prevalence of foot and mouth disease. Arrangements had now been made, however, for the establishment of quarantine stations where animals for export will be kept for sufficient time to ensure their being free of all disease before leaving Britain. He had hoped that one such station would be opened at the beginning of this month, but unfortunately this would not now take place until early in the New Year. A scheme was also adopted of financing the .freight charges of pedigree stock, to the Dominions, the sum of £50,000 being voted to pay half such cost where the animals were not to be used for profit, but for the general benefit. The Board was making it cheaper, therefore, to get pedigree bulls to New Zealand and was prepared to discuss the matter with any responsible people who required such assistance. Helping on Production. There waa at Home a real movement to help on production in the Empire, and by the word Empire he included Britain (hear, hear), the sum pf £1,000,000 per year being set aside for the purpose. There was to-day a considerable measure of reciprocity between Britain and the Dominions, and having entered on such a scheme the Board would not go back, but would proceed appreciably forward. Mr. Poison moved a vote of thanks to Mr Amery for his able address, this being carried by acclamation. Mr Amery; at this stage left the meeting to keep another, engagement, arid Mr G. Huxley, secretary of affairs in connexion with the Empire Marketing Board, remained behind to answer any questions that might be asked. Mr Poison asked, on'behalf of the Federation of Pig Breeders'of New Zealand, whether New Zealand bacon and pork could not be stamped "Empire Grown" instead of "Imported" as at present. Mr Huxley: That is a matter I will shake up. Mr Bay asked whether it was possible to discover a process by which New Zealand beef could be chilled so as to reach the Home market, in the same condition as that from Argentina.

Mr Huxley: The housewife, on the whole, will not buy frozen beef if she can buy chilled beef. We are anxious to spare no effort to discover how chilled beef can be sent over from this country. I can see no reason why the present limit of three weeks cannot be extended by research.

Mr Huxley was accorded a vote of thanks.