ENGLAND LIVES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 59, 7 September 1926, Page 20

ENGLAND LIVES

MONEY, MEN AND MARKETS,

"AND THE GREATEST IS MARKETS."

A statesman of Empire once summed up the problem of Greater Britain in the apt alliteration—men, money, and markets. With characteristic courage, he added, "and the greatest of these is markets." Like many epigrams, the phrase requires qualification and, addressing myself to the merchant? and buyers of New Zealand, the proviso which suggests itself is that mere size in markets is not necessarily the best criterion of value. Even if money is always money—a very

debatable proposition—it is important in the building up of international trade that men and markets should be of the right type. It is a boast of New Zealand that all but 5 per cent, of the people in her happy isles are of British stock, and that more than 70 per cent, of New Zealand exports and almost 50 per cent, of New Zealand imports are British in destina-' tion or origin. Speaking as a past president of the Federation of British Industries, I can say wholeheartedly that, jf every part of King George's far-flung Empire carried out its Imperial duty with equal success, the problem of post-war reconstruction would be solved. I take it that, so far as trade is concerned, the ideal on our side of the world is that Britain should import the raw material of her industries and foodstuffs for her forty-five million consumers, and should meet the bill for these imports by .exporting cotton goods, woollens, machinery, 1 iron and steel wares, and other high-grade manufactures such as would keep the forty-five million consumers of the Mother Country in regular and profitable work. Whence better than from he overseas Dominions and Colonies of the .Crown? What is the corresponding ideal on your side of the Seven Seas, among a community whose wealth consists of butter, cheese, meat, wool, tallow, timber, and other wares by which the teeming cities of the Mother Country live and thrive? Surely the achievement of New Zealand herself affords the best answer. The idea is that, within the limits of proper competition, New Zealand trade should be done within the Empire. Already the preference extended to British over foreign goods amounts to 12 per cent., a record figure, though Australia runs her sister Dominion close with a British preference of llf per cent. The New Zealand preference would, however, appear considerably larger were it not that the great class of cotton goods are admitted free, thus kSeping down the general level of the New Zealand tariff as applied to British goods.

ADVANTAGE WITHOUT PENALTY.

By tho Right, lion. Sir Erio Geddes, Chairman of the Dunlop Rubber Co., Ltd.

Your new Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, emphasised his faith in this general principle when he was serving under Mr. MasBey, whose death last year was a loss to the whole Empire. As the Minister responsible for Kailways, Post Office, and Public Works, Mr. Coates encouraged his departmental officers to buy British goods whenever possible. What your Prime {Minister did as a director of departmental policy I hope every New Zealand merchant will do in the day-to-day trade of the Dominion. The system of Imperial preference in no way penalises your own merchants and producers. The incidence of the tariff merely makes British shippers pay rather less duty than their foreign rivals. . The prosperity o£ New Zealand 13 sucn that importers can afford to buy from Britain on a generous scale. At present funds are accumulating in London and can only be transferred to New Zealand at heavy cost. Yovir traders will not desire to multiply imports of luxury goods, but capital can be exported with full ad-1 vantage to the Dominion in the form of British machinery and plant which will assist the development of your islands, and this is precisely the trade which will keep the factories of tho Motherland in fruitful activity. Believe me, Great Britain is anxious to 'do the business. New Zealand, as I have good reason to know, imports motor-cars and tires each year to tho value of £5,500,000. Between January and December she buys £2,500,000 worth of cotton goods and more than £2,000,000 worth of electrical appliances. Such a market is not to be ignored, though, from time to time, I have heard Dominion buyers •grumble that the worth of their market is not appreciated. If one trusted these rumbles of discontent there would seem to be a feeling abroad that the Motherland is out of date. Not a bit of it. The. average Englishman is over-modest when his national possessions are being appraised, and this depreciatory habit is foßtered by the pose of certain politicians and writers in the newspapers. But it does not represent the truth. Here and there, in England, Scotland, Wales, and

Northern Ireland, are factories which are inefficient or struggling along with out-of-date equipment. These are exceptions which prove the general rules that the majority of British factories are equal in efficiency to any in the world and ahead of most in the reliability of the goods turned out. War experience did much for British manufacture, and most of the factories in the Old Country are up to date, just as the majority of them are dividendearners, in spite of a million men and women drawing unemployed benefits. The statistical wiseacres harp upon the 30 per cent, which is wrong, forgetful of the 90 per cent, which is abundantly right.

NOT DULL SOULED TRADERS,

Instead of grumbling that British manufacturers cannot or will not supply the right things, I would counsel the buyers of New Zealand to get in touch with the shippers who can give them just what they require. For one- dull-souled trader in Britain there are a dozen men of energy and vision, only too anxious to extend their markets, and these are just the men to value to the full connection with a producing centre which supplies the manufacturing towns of the Homeland with the food and raw material suggested by an ideal trading system.

Migration is not the burden of this article, which is primarily concerned with markets. But men were coupled . with markets in its opening sentence, and the peopling of the empty spaces overseas can never be far from the thoughts of all who seek constructive solutions ■for Empire problems. By fostering trade with Britain, New Zealand is not only making the Motherland stronger to have and to hold our common Imperial possession, but is increasing the stock <f healthy youth «which will some day aid in the development of her fair islands. If you can help us, we can help you and, where advantage is mutual, surely it is doubly blessed.