WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1930, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

tariffs and trade. ( (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, September 22. The trade c'f the world is in a muddled state" business is slow everywhere yet commodities ivere;,neye^?fldscheap. The owners of the commodities sre anxious to sell but buyers are comparatively few. This -dullness in trade is attributed by economists to be partly due to the maldistribution of the world monetary gold,' nearly three-fifths of it being held by the United -States and France, and half of their total'holdings is sterilised, it is not performing or allowed to perform the function- assigned to monetary gold by the countries operating the gold standard. Even if the maldistribution of golh were rectified trade would still bo slow and difficult for the ruffians of our" political life, the vote purchasing politicians, have*placed barriers against international trade. The position of butter, in which New Zealand is keenly interested, will servo to show the immense harm that is doile Twelve months ago tile United States was absorbing practically all the surplus milk and,cream that Canada could spare. Hoover, to become President of the .Great Republic, had to buy the votes bf the farmers and he did so by promising them . increased protection’ and. other gifts* ■ Preside'nt-"Hoover had, to redeem his promises, and the Hawley wSriiool tariff has been described as protection run mad/riCas , the re- ' suit. . Canada cannot now send all, or even any of her surplus 'milk,- -‘ cream and butter over the border to her big neighbour.- Canada was thus obliged to-do something. T-he present Prime Minister of Canada, Mr R. B. Bennett, increased protection especially to the dairy farmers who claimed to be suffering from the. competition from New Zealand., A- XM'Aa * ’l/ Mr Bennett has fulfilled his.promises and now tlie dairymen of-. New: Zealand recognise that w.ith. a duty--bf 8; cents, or, 4d per lb it would .be too much to expect, the Canadians to buy New Zealand butter. The new duty is absolutely prohibitive. Under the old tariff of 1 cent ( Jd) .per lb our butter could - enter Canada, and our trade in this commodity with ■ the sister Dominion/ was growing. '

In 1923 our exports of 'butter to Canada were valued at £1,565,646,. arid last" year at'had risen to £2,7.07,669;'1f the; Canadian Government adheres to the 8 cents duty, it: is obvious that our tr,ac|e: in butter with. Canada is’' at an end. inhe United States sqtieeezed out New Zealand, but there is iiobody we can ,SqUeeZe .Oiit fctr competing With out hutth?Kv ' l ? he difficult task.-falls upon us of finding anotiferifnarket to take the place of' Canada, and that can not be achieved in a hurry, therefore, the butter we would have sent to Cam. ad a must now-be dumped in-England. We are not alone" in being deprived of a profitable butter market, for Denmark' and' Holland are in very much the same position. For several years pa.st : Germany has absorbed a considerable quantity of Danish and Dutch but ters, but now there is an end to that, for Germany like Canada and the United States, has raised the duty on butter to a point which makes the sale of foreign butter in -Germany impossible. The Danish and Dutch butters hitherto sold to Germany must now be dumped on England, and so the butter position becomes" very interesting but "A some* what difficult for New -Zealaifil arid Australia. .

During the eight months of ; the current year the imports ' of butter into the United Kingdom show an increase of over 10,000 tons as compared with the last year and stocks- in cold store on Sept. 1 were larger than ' .on the same date last year. With the Canadian quota of New Zealand butter’, and the German quota of Danish and Dutch butter added to normal imports, the supplies will be extremelyl large. Britain will be unable to absord the Increased and pay current prices, more especially when it is realised that there are over two millions of unemployed in the Kingdom, ' and the number’is expected to be more than doubled during the next.four or five ninths.' '

It is hardly to be expected that butter can hold even its present price ol 130 s per cwt.-.which is 49s per cwt. less than the price ruling twelve months ago. In addition to this harrassing situation the New Zealand dairy industry will have to face more strenuous competition. The Danes have decided on marketing their butter in pats in the South of England. They already hold the markets of the Midlands and the North. The scheme of vote purchasing by politicians has upset the calm of the butter market, and even if gold was better distributed the butter trade would nevertheless be bad! The part played by politicians in the restraint of trade needs watching.