OUR BEST CUSTOMER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 257, 18 July 1918, Page 4

OUR BEST CUSTOMER

The specch made yesterday by tho Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald) at the Conference of tha Now Zealand Council of Agriculture reminds us that the great ancl growing prosperity of this Dominion is in a- very large measure due to our commercial connections with Great Britain and to the power and. unceasing vigilance oi the British Navy. We would be base indeed if ever we allowed ourselves to forget the debt 1 of gratitude which wo owe to Britain. She has always been our best customer, but we are bound to her by spiritual bonds, nobler and stronger ,than the ties of self-inter-est. Theso finer and surer bonds have been strengthened by the ordeal of war, and wo now feel that our relationships with the Mother Country should be -regulated by other and higher considerations over and above that "sordid commercialism" to which Mr. MacDonald referred. Business matters* must, of. course, ha dealt with-in a • businesslike way; but this does not mean that we should take advantage of the tremendous strain which the war has imposed upon the resources of Britain and extract from her tha uttermost farthing for the produce which she requires from us. Nor is it right that our Government, in acting on behalf of our producers, should make the hardest possible bargain with the British authorities. The great majority of our farmers only ask for fair and reasonable treatment. Tho Board of Agriculture voices the general opinion in regard to the wool position, for instance, when it expresses satisfaction with the terms offered by tho Imperial Government. The Conference of the Council of Agriculture took up the same right-minded attitude, and stated that the completion of tho purchase on the lines indicated would be in the best interests of the Dominion. There has been an agitation emanating, as Sib Walter Buchanan mentioned, from "a certain portion of the East Coast" for an alteration in the Imperial Government's offer. Sir Walter, suggested that it should be made quite clear that the Conferonce had no sympathy with this agitation; but tho general opinion seemed to be that i,t would bo more dignified for. the Conference to ignore. it. It is, however, sometimes a mistake to adopt a passive and negative attitude m regard to matters of this kind, and in the present instance a positive pronouncement that the Conference emDhatically disapproved of the agitation would probably have exerted a wholesome influence and would certainly have been welcomed by the general public. However, Sir Walter Buchanan's object was in a large measure achieved, for it was made quito clear that the Conference ignored tho agitation because it had no sympathy with it.