DAIRY PRODUCE FROM THE EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 84, 3 January 1935, Page 8

DAIRY PRODUCE FROM THE EMPIRE

Plea For “Open Door” By Sir Edmund Vestey BENEFIT TO OLD COUNTRY (From a Correspondent). London, November 26. The benefits the British public obtains from the continued “open door” to Empire dairy products were referred to by Sir Edmund Vestey, joint head of the Blue Star Line, at a lunch which followed the launching last Thursday of the Blue Star Line’s 11,000-tons cargo .liner, New Zealand Star, the ninth of ten ships which have been ordered from British 'shipyards for the United King-dom-New Zealand-Australian food trade. The vessel was launched at Harland and Wolff’s shipyard in Belfast, on the pressing of a button by Lord Bledisloe, Governor-General of New Zealand, at Government House. Wellington, more than 12,000 miles away. Those present at the launch afterwards heard Lord Bledisloe make a speech.

“The development of the British Empire was never so much in"the minds of the people of the Empire as it is today,” Sir Edmund Vestey said. “We can all be grateful to Lord Bledisloe for the enthusiastic example he has set us in entering into the spifit of the development of Empire trade by making the speech which you have just heard relayed from Government House, Wellington, and which was so marvellously synchronised with'the launch of the New Zealand Star at this yard, the electric spark coming through at exactly the arranged moment.”

Shipping and the Quota.

It could, he continued, be understood that, with the restrictions already in force, and rumours of further restrictions, there must be great anxiety connected with the investing of such large amounts of money as were required for the building of ships such as the New Zealand Star, but he was sure that whatever the anxieties of the steamship lines might be, they were proving just as great for the authorities that had the deciding of these restrictions upon the imports of food into Britain. “Dairy produce is an example of one of the few important items of food which have been left free from the interference of the authorities,” Sir Edmund said. “Taking the position of butter, I quote some most educative remarks from W. Weddel and Company’s | review of dairy produce imports for the year ended June 30, 1934: ‘The amount spent by the British consumer on butter last year was £35,000,000 ' sterling. In 1930, when prices were reasonably higher, the amount was £46,000,000 sterling for two-thirds of the quantity. This means that the British public last year obtained for £35,000,000 what they would have had to pay £69,000,000 for, four years ago, a saying to our country of £34,000,000 in one year owing to the producing countries having sent us more butter than the market could comfortably absorb.’ Butter Consumption Doubled. “At the present time it is estimated," Sir Edmund continued, “that not more than 10 per cent, of the butter consumed in Britain is manufactured In this country per annum; However, by improved methods of production, dairyfarmers all over the world have been able to reduce their costs substantially, all of which has assisted in developing the greatly increased copsumption of butter in this country. Our consumption is now over half a million tons per year, or double the quantity consumed 10 years ago. This is entirely due to non-interference by our authorities, and is all to the good. There is no purer or more health-giving food than butter, and there is still room for a vast increase in its consumption in the United Kingdom. “I quote this as an instance of how our country, the shipping,lines, and the shipbuilding industry have gained through the non-interference of our authorities in these important items of food for the British public. Alight I suggest that where it is necessary to do something for the British fame", he should be'helped by the Treasury and not by tariffs, which increase the cost of living of the poorest people in our land, and restrict consumption at a time when the world needs’the utmost increase in consumption to reduce naturally unemployment in so many directions.”