The Dominion WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1921. EXPORT TRADE PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 205, 25 May 1921, Page 4

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1921. EXPORT TRADE PROBLEMS

The essential part the, primary producer plays in the economic life of a country like New Zealand is even more apparent now than it was in better times, and no one can fail to perceive that the principal questions discussed yesterday at the Wellington Provincial Conference. of the Farmers’ Union are in the mofit definite sense of national concern. The effect of adverse conditions of export trade is felt not. only by farmers, but by nearly every section of the community, and the community as a whole is vitally interested iiv overcoming the difficulties arising out of the present state of the wool market and the impediments offered by high shipping freights, and in other ways, to the profitable marketing of meat and some other kinds of produce. A stage has now been reached when other sections of the population are called upon to do something more than admit in a general way their close community of interest with the primary producer. It is Fairly obvious that if the export of primary produce is to continue on a basis profitable to farmers and to the Dominion, the costs of handling produce and conveying it to market must be reduced. At the conference yesterday duo emphasis was laid on the fact that in dealing with the total problem thus raised there, are local as well as external charges to be taken into account. Shipping freights figure conspicuously in the list of. charges which are at present handicapping export trade, but export produce incurs very high charges before it leaves this country. It was mentioned yesterday, for in-

stance, that of the outlay of 4-Jcl. # ner lb. at present involved in freezing New Zealand meat and sending it to London, 1 3-Sd. represents the cost of freezing and handling to the point of shipment. According to the conference president (Mr.

Polson), these, local charges show an increase of 120 per cent, on (he corresponding pre-war charges, and he added that nearly the whole of this increased cost (an increase of 3s. to ss. per 601 b. sheep), which represented the difference between re-establishment and bankruptcy to many producers, was in the shape of increased wages paid to labour. No doubt similar increases are shown in the local costs of handling wool and other classes of produce. ■ '

With a remarkable disregard of the serious change in export trade conditions, some of the industrial grouns concerned, though already highly paid, are seeking further wage-increases. They would evidently be wise to consider that there is such a thing as killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. The question now, in some cases at least, is whether existing wage j rates can Ire maintained without hopelessly hqndicanping industries on which the whole country depends. No one wishes to sec wages lowered, but the ultimate governing factor so far as the occupations in question are concerned, is. and must be, the price obtainable for produce in oversea markets. Apart from the beaming of wages on. producing costs, farmers are certainly entitled to demand an abandonment of the, vexatious practices by which some sections of organised Labour have done.so much to harass industry in general, and incidentally to pile up the cost of handling and transporting export product In the recent past, wharf operations have on a number of occasions been held up without a shadow of justification, and at great cost to the conn-

try. These stoppages, and the poor standards of efficiency in cargo handling which obtain in the, ports of the Dominion, add very materially to the difficulty of securing a reduction of shipping freights. While there is, need of local adjustment to the new conditions by which primary industries a»re faced, it is, of course, manifest that high shipping freights more, than any other single factor intensify the difficulties of the existing situation. At the moment no adequate remedy is available. Freights in New Zealan d_ oversea trade, particularly on refrigerated cargo, have been reduced only to a slight extent from the post-war maximum, and are now extremely high as compared with general freights throughout the world. For the time being the shipping companies are masters of the situation, a,nd there does not seem {o be any doubt that they are denying the producers of tlie Dominion that, fair measure of consideration which they are. entitled to expect. The companies contend that the. great increase in operating costs since, the outbreak of war makes an appreciable reduction in New Zealand freights impossible, but though the increase in operating costs is universal, it, has not prevented a heavy drop in cargo freights over a great part of the world. The producers and exporters of this country have a long-standing grievance against the shipping companies, and at various times enterprising groups have found a, temporary remedy in chartering ships on their own account. The shipping companies have themselves to thank if farmers throughout the Dominion are show-

ing an increasing inclination to establish the’r own shipping line, or, rather, a lipe owned narflv bv the producers and partly by the State.