QUALITY AT LESS COST

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1933, Page 6

QUALITY AT LESS COST

i "In the event of free marketing continuing," the Department of Scientific and Industrial < Research emphasises the importance of reduction of the costs" of primary industries. We take this to mean that to enter the British market competitively (provided that market retains an open door) price and quality will have to Le right. After making due allowance for the reclamation by grassing of British waste lands (predicted with increasing confidence by Professor Stabledon) and for competition not only by the British fanner but by all oversea farmers, it is fairly plain that the grower and exporter of New Zealand primary products must pay for his distance from the British market by some superior economy. If the refrigeration experts can give the promised advance (meat, butter, and fruit landed in Britain in much-improved condition), that will be one movement in the New Zealand producer's favour. Refrigeration improvements have the advantage that the responsibility is in comparatively few hands, and therefore there is reason to hope that, once an improvement is economically demonstrated, the freezing and transport companies will see that they get it; there will not be a ruinous time-lag in applying such improvements. But the adoption of j improved standards on farms is a matter for many thousands of farmers, and for various reasons there will be laggards. The problem of marginal farms is partly the problem of marginal farmers. .. . i