MR NASH'S MARKETING MISSION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 179, 16 August 1937, Page 4

MR NASH'S MARKETING MISSION

We are able tg-day to give in pretty full detail the story which our Minister of Finance and of Marketing had on Saturday night to tell to the people of New Zealand as the result of his- mission to the other side of the world, on which he set out with an extensive, and probably expensive stalf some ten iong months ago. It is to be hoped that it wiU be closely read and studied, and especially by the farming community, in whose interests in particular the journey was undertaken. The first impression to be gained, for Mr Nash himself specially stresses it, will be of the activity with which the Minister has pursued the task he undertook of finding bigger and better outlets for our exportable products. It will be seen that he has in no way spared him'self, but has tripped here, there, and prefty well everywhere there appeared to be 'any prospect of discovering them. There can be no doubt, therefore, about the earnestness and zeal whic h have been displayed. On the other hand, however, when the long narrative comes to be stjipped of extran eous embellishments there can scarcely but be a very strong sense of disappointment at the bare results. So far as we can read it, the only really concluded understanding* that has been reached is that affecting our exports of meat, of whidh we had already heard by cable. Then with respect to this particular arrangement, it has to be recognised that, as to beef, mutton and lamb, it follows almost as a matter of course on that which was effected a little more than two years ago by Mr. Nash's predecessor in office as Finance Minister, the Hon. J. G. Coates. The only difference would appear to be in the somewhat larger "quotas" allowed to the Dominion. But even this is merely in accord with the agreement then reached that New Zealand would be granted "an expanding share of the United Kingdom market." Mr. Nash, having so little of real accomplishment to report, is naturally fain to make the most of the difficulties he encountered. Among them he . speaksv more than once of the suggested "levy", or virtual import duty, to be imposed on Empire meat in.order to provide funds for subsidisiug United Kingdom growers. As a matter of fact, this proposal was very thoroughly and effect ively squelched by Mr Coates two years ago. ' Our authority for sayiog thjs is a book on "Economic Changes in N.Z." published a year or so ago by Dr. W. B. Sutch, one of Mr. Nash's pre'sent highly praised retinue and sponsored by Mr N ash himself as being "a most informative and valuable publication, porfraying facts m a qorrect perspective."- Even if this proposal was mooted again, then the arguments against it Mr. Nash ,says he adduced were precisely those advanced two years ago as set out in Dr. Sutch's book. It would thus seem that so far as our main meat exports are concerned Mr. Nash has accomplished no more in his ten months than the previous Minister did in a good deal fewer weel£. Nor is it to be overlooked, though Mr Nash does not think it politic to mention it, that he was conducting his negotiations under Old Country con- n ditions infinitely more favourable than in July, 193 5. With respect to the admission of dairy produce into Great Britain the Minister has to confess that he left matters very much as they were when he got there contenting himself with saying that "until the United Kingdom decides as to its .dairyproduce import policyit will not be possible to decide New Zealand' s position.'-' So far as concerns the outcome of the Minister' s excursions into foreign lands, of which we were led to expect so much there is positively no thing offered beyond some vague Hopes of future beneficial results from representations made. In this connection, an exception should perhaps be made with regard to Germany, with whom some "tentative agreement" would appear to h ave been reached. This, however, amqtunts only to a bartering arrangement-— none too definite— such as Germany has been eagerly seeking to establish with any country tha t can be inducecl to entertain it. Thus it would seem that, as a marketing adventure, Mr. Nash's protracted absence from home duties has been singularly empty of tangible results. As an apparently much heeded educative experience, however, it may perhaps be hoped that it will bear some good fruit. Mr. Nash should at least have learned that the job of "leading the world" he and his colleagues have undertaken is not so easy of accomplishment as they would appear to fancy.