Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1937. TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 223, 20 August 1937, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1937. TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA.

Mr Semple’s opinion that the time is ripe for trade relations between Australia and New Zealand to be again reviewed will be widely shared. It is, as he says, absurd that there should be trade barriers between the sister Dominions. A little while ago new offices for the New Zealand Government were opened in Melbourne when the Australian Minister for Customs, in emphasising the value of co-operation, remarked that “there was a little row about fruit and vegetables, but it was a mere nothing and would adjust itself.” Mr White, the Minister in question, if that were his correct view of the matter, showed himself strangly forgetful of the real position. The Australian consumer has to pay a very high price for potatoes and the ,New Zealand consumer has to go without cheap oranges in their season simply because of the Customs regulations imposed by each Government. Stated another way, the producers in both countries are deprived of a profitable market for their produce through embargoes. It is a long time since, on the ground that disease might be introduced into Australia, New Zealand potatoes were deprived of a favourable outlet in the Commonwealth when seasons were good. This, it has been abundantly proved since, was a mere excuse to maintain for Australian growers a dear market in the cities., whose people pay heavily for these restrictions. Every effort by past Governments to settle ,the question has been met with disappointment, and New Zealand has an embargo against New South Wales citrus fruit as that State is not free from the Mediterranean fruit fly. That the matter is a political one is generally accepted, because a conference, of experts at Canberra three years ago decided that the embargo against New Zealand produce need not be maintained on the score of disease.

Concern has also been expressed by manufacturers in this Dominion over the uneven nature of the trade between both countries. It very often happens that while cargo is shut out from vessels leaving Australia for New Zealand, steamers despatched on the return journey not infrequently carry only a few hundred tons. Our exports to the Commonwealth last year represented a value of £1,619,866, but we received from across tlie Tasman goods of Australian origin valued at £4,941,313, the balance in the sister Dominion’s favour, when re-exports were included, being £3,376,861. In the preceding year the balance was slightly less at £2,513,646. The returns for this year promise no better result judged on available figures, For

tlie four months to the end. of April the adverse balance was £1,352,469. It is matter of common knowledge that a good deal of our imports from Australia are goods that we could very well obtain from Britain, so that we are not acting in just manner to the Mother Country who absorbs practically all our exported surplus of primary products. There is very gpod reason, therefore, for the revisionist view expressed by Mr Semple on this matter. Quite a number of times Ministers from Australia have visited New Zealand on the subject of a trade . agreement, or Ministers from this Dominion have gone to Australia, but nothing of value has originated from their discussions. Lord Bledisloe, when Gov-ernor-General of the Dominion, preached the doctrine that we should first of all trade within our own shores, then with the Mother Country, next with the other Dominions, and lastly with the foreigner; but it is palpable from the serious adverse trade balance with Australia that we are not following this excellent advice. There is abundant reason that we should, for last year there was a serious gap between the amount spent by Britain in the purchase of New Zealand produce, and the amount spent by New Zealand in the purchase of British goods. .