PROGRESSIVE NEW ZEALAND

Hokitika Guardian, 4 October 1930, Page 6

PROGRESSIVE NEW ZEALAND

A LARDER OF EMPIRE.

AN INTERESTING PHAAIPLEfJY p- ,The Empire Marketing Board is performing a very valuable work in issuing periodically phamplets containing facts and figures relating to the production and trade of the various countries constituting the British Commonwealth of nations. The first of the series published covers the Dominion of New Zealand, the remarkably swift growth of which is one of the wonders of Empire development. There was a time, not so very long ago, when political Little Englanders sought to belittle the importance of this most patriotic outpost of Empire in the Southern seas by telling us that her population was less than that of the City of Glasgow and that either as a market for British goods or a source of -supply of food and raw materials. New Zealand was a negligible quantity Events have confounded their fainthearted predictions. A country which contains to-day a widely dispersed population, of some f,.500,000 souls ,aiid exports annually about . - £06,000,000 worth of native produce, or roughly £3B per head, can no longer ,be regarded as of no account. Of. these exports, foods, and raw materials form 94 per cent, of the total, and more than 7.0 per cent, is consigned to the United Kingdom. The Mother Country is the Dominion’s chief customer, , just as ,it is . the chief soyree of the Dominion’s: supplies of -essential imports, -jit is true, .;that, exporters to New Zealand have to encounter severe comr'>ti‘ i'’n from the United States of America, which in the domain of such articles, as hosiery, plectrical apparatus, hooks, agricultural machinery, totals, and implements had captured a large part of.thetrgdetliat with better organisation ought to be the perquisite of "the. Briti sh manufacturer. The EmVpire .Marketing Beard does not suggest how business can be. increased. That is obviously a matter for the consideration of individual traders, who must, admit that a country which ,already imports annually about £49.000,000 worth of goods, most of them ,of the manufactured variety, is a market worth cultivating.

The interdependence of the various States of the Empire upon one another is illustrated-ijby New. Zealand’s Among the 34 groups unliiejf whfeh 'imports are classified tho .United Kingdom was the principal supplier in no fewer than 17, and in 13 of these furnished more than twothirds of the totals. Its highest perjeentages were in ’boots and shoes, various textile fabrics, iron and steel, electrical goods, including cables, and paints, and colours. From the other .parts of the; -Empire large supplies are obtained. Thus Fiji furnishes twothirds of the sugar, Ceylon . the bulk of the tea, India Lags,, and .sacks, Australia coal, timber, wheat, and flour, and over half the musical instruments and confectionery. Nearly three-fifths ,of the rubber ty.r^s, were ebta.ined, from Gm,a,da, Which shared with the United Kingdom the printing paper market. The only groups in which the . greater part pf the imports came from foreign countries were motor vehicles (in which the United , States secured riiore than half the trade), mineral oils,, raw isugar, and silk goods. On the whole British manufacturers have fared well, being responsible for practically one-half of the total iniporks pf finished goods, Biit there is still scope for further effort, especially in articles in which the United States, through its very efficient salesmanship organisation, is finding a market.

New Zealand is at present and is likely to remain for long a pastoral country, arid of ,h?r total exports animal products accounted for nearly per cent in. 1929. Her success in the meat and dairy produce industries is largely, due to refrigerated transport, since the introduction of which shipment#! of. meat, butter, and cheese have rapidly forged ahead. The progress made since pre-war days is very imposing indeed. Thus between 1911 and 1929 butter exports have increased in value from £1,580,000 to £13,230,000; cheese from- £1,190,000 to £7,020,000,. . and meat from £3, 500,000 to £9,880,000. Twenty years ago New Zealand was exporting to the world only about £19,000,000 worth, of her produce. The value of her exports in 1929 exceeded' £55,000,000. Surely few countries within or. without the Empire can boast pf a similar record, of impressive pro-p-ess. Unfortunately, in common tvVth other nations, she has suffered by the recent fall in the prices of her primary products, and the value of her exports in the year ended March 31 last was slightly less than that of her imports. / But, as Sir, George Elliott pointed out at the annual meeting of the Bank of New Zealand, the bare figures do not give a wholly correct indication of the Dominion’s financial relationship with the rest of the world. Invisible imports in the from of interest on external loans have to be taken into account. Assuming that such payments alone amounting to approximately £8,250,000, New .Zfialapd has a comfortable balance on the right side after meetipg all her obligations and .paying for her imports, only a moderate proportion of f which is represented by borrowed capital.