THE DOMINION'S TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 16, 25 June 1909, Page 3

THE DOMINION'S TRADE.

SOUK OF ITS I'UOBLUiIS.

■SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF AtiKICULTUEE. OUR DAIRY IXDI'STKY. Pahner.iiun X., t l,nii; ->3. ,ili» largest "iitiioriiiir u; aa-.-.-un., and others .yet lulu m Coihiivl.v.., "„■,„,: ilie present conference assembled m tin Mjinawutu A. and P. Association:, be lecture hull this afternoon to lisU'n to the speech by the Hon. T. Mackenzie, the Minister of Agriculture. .Mr. j\ Foreman, .president of the National Dairy Association, uvas in the chair. The Hon. McKenzie said the dairy industry would soon be worth £3,000,000 yearly to the Dominion, and easily ranked third on the ,ist of our exports'. Xo industry was calculated to all'ord more employment .or to connibute more to the octior settlement of the country, i'hc output this year had increased coni.derabiy, cheese approaching to close on .11,000,000 and butter to about .11,000,000, London value. , CARELESS MAKERS.

He regretted,-however, liiat the qmilitvr ot the hitter had not been maintained, and this undoubtedly hud to be looked into. The cause was partly deliberate and purely due to carelessness. i Some butter, he was assured, had been sent Home containing as much as 25 per cent, of moisture, and when it was remembered that in Hay of last year prices of New Zealand" (butter reached 112s and 114s per civt., with Danish at 114s and UOs, and this year choicest was down to 100s to 102s,'while Danish had not fallen to anything like the same degree, it would be conceded that the matter called for attention. The dairy regulations had been a subject of much discussion and falsification. He hoped, however, that such regulations and conditions would lie established as would make it impossible for dirty suppliers to destroy ithe whole output of a factory.

THE DEPARTMENT'S AIM. "In the Department with which I am now connected," continued the Minister, "it will be our endeavor to assist in letablishing improved dairy herds. (Applause). My officers are devoting themselves with a singleness of purpose to that end. In Denmark we see that great improvement is 'being made in that direction. .If Denmark can in two years make the following improvement by selection in her herds, surely New Zealand should be able to do something. In those two years the yield per head increased from 43301b to 40781b m quantity, while the latter-mentioned figures' made lib of butter as against 2ofb of the first-named, and the cost per 100 gallons was xeduccd from 3s Id to 2s Od. The increased output of our butter is due not to any improvement in the selection of herds, but to the increased number of cattle milked. The condition of our dairy industry calls for the most careful investigation. Already murdi has been done at Weraroa by careful selection, but our object must be to raise the standard of our output in every class to the highest possible condition.

NEW ZEALAND'S ADVANTAGES. It is not sufficient for us to do as well as other countries; we have to do better. We have but to take a view of the geographical position New Zealand occupies to see the need of this. We enjoy a splendid isolation. We are the centre of the ocean system. With the exception of torrid Australia and frigid Antarctica our nearest countries are nearly 7000 miles away, and even then they do not furnish us with markets. To turn out the best article possible is the only way we can be assured of success. The State is rightly doing its best for us from the moment ot our entry into the 'world onward. It looks afte r our education, and sees that We obtain equality of opportunity, and when old age comes on provision is made for those who have not been able to set aside sufficient for their declining years. These advantages «ost much, and much is- required from us in return. We have to prepare our butter and send it 13,000 miles in competition with corntries within a few hours' sail of the same markets. With our eheese we have to compete with America, where a week's transit takes their produce to the same central markets. With our wool and our mutton we have to compete with the Argentine, where land is cheap and the conditions of labor and social comforts are far below the standard obtaining here. It therefore follows that if we are. to be successful ■we must do more than is being done by others in the way of perfecting our output. THE UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM.

In looking round this room to-day and in viewing the people one comes ia contact with outside, we ««■ im sl"ns of depression in our Dominion of which

we unfortunately hear so much in our cities. This is a matter which calls tor much concern and consideration. It k a matter of regret that there should be a lack of employment in the towns. The fact, however, remains that wo are in some respects following on wrong lines. Too many people are congregating in our towns. (Hoar, hear). It is a condition prevalent all the world over, but whilst that may be justifiable where cities are centres of manufacturing industries, the same cannot be said of our country. The increase in the population of the towns in the Wellington provincial district during recent years has been greater than that of the country districts, and taking the whole Dominion from 11)01 to 1000 'the increase of about 18>/» per cent, in the former as against about 9% in the latter. Now, so long as' our towns do not develop manufacturing interests more than they arc doing, 1 consider it necessary for the country to morease fourfold to that of the urban population. In regard to this depression, it is hard to, understand that it is as bad as one sometimes hears in the face of the increasing luxuries that the'people of this Dominion are indulging fa. Although New Zealand manufactures the most excellent woollen fabrics, which for price and quality arc not to he excelled on the face of the globe, yet there has been an increase in the imports of drapery and fancy goods during 1!)08 over 11)05 to the extent of about .£1,000,000. For the same years the increase in spirits was £152.000, and in drugs £IOO,OOO, and motor cars mounted up from £50,000 to £250,000.

RETRENCHMENT. At this juncture one might refer to the I work of retrenchment that has .been rendered necessary, and in this connection I might say that it has pained those in authority to have to carry out much of the work that it was necessary to undertake. Hut it was necessary, It has been stated that political influence and favoritism have had much to do with the operations. Such is not the ease, and I speak with an intimate knowledge of the situation. The fact is a depression, the causes of which are generally known, has passed over the world. One of the main causes that New Zealand suffered was because the export value of our farm products fell from £17,000,000 to £13,000,000—a difference of £4,000,000. THE OUTLOOK GOOD.

Tlie outlook, however, is good, and that is by reason of the fact that the backbone industries of our country are sound and increasingly .prosperous'. The same cause corrected the depression that occurred in America when the monetary panic occurred there in 11107. The causes of the panic, according to the Daily .Mail, were admirably'stated by Mr. Seymour Bell, the British commercial agent in the United States, in his report presented tp Parliament, ' Ho said; 'The .panic is entirely financial; it has, it is true, brought about a wide- . spread suspension of trade and yndus-' try. There was no glutting of goods, and the farmer, who forms the backbone of American prosperity, lias' not been affected by the financial situation, owing to nine years of almost uninterrupted prosperity, which has given him a high buying power and assured the prosperity of the country dependent upon him.' And the same causes have largely saved the situation in our Dominion. There is every reason to believe that we are on the dawn of another era of prosperity. The production of gold has' increased enormously of late years, and has gone up from .C 05.000,000 ten years ago to .1:85,000,000 last year. It is also being aeeu- ' initiated in the banks of the world. The j Bank of France l|as now a reserve of \ £143,000,000. " • " !■ EXPORTS .INCREASING.

A little time ago I referred to the. decrease in the exports of our .products. A marked improvement has now occurred in values, and the iirsfc live months of this year show an export value of £10,53(),b0n, being half a million more than for the six months ending June, 1908. In other words, there has been an increase of £1,810,000 over the corresponding five months of last year. Speaking generally in reference to our j products, it might lie mentioned that the most pronounced increase is in the ! value of our wool, which must represent one and a-half millions to two millions over the value of last year's, and one of the most satisfactory features in connection with the world's sale of wool is that the wool is largely going into direct consumption. So less than 1,300,000 bales! have recently been used in that maautr, or Uo|ooo over the cor-

• responding period before. The most s'enuusiy ullected articles of export are frozen mutton and lamb; the former 'living touched the lowest point in the history 0 f this important trade. It was at first contended that this arose iroin oversupply in the Home market; out the totai imports into Ureal Britain 'W 1908 were 473,000 fewer carcasos j than during 1007. True, the early part 01 Jus year lias shown a considerable liicreuft-e over 1;)08, but nothing to jusii'.V the present depressed conditions in me i;id Country. j i Ke [ slux , t | ul • i.uiy causes are operating against tin: >';«• in tile value of our iru/en meat; can't among them being the lack m -oik for the British workmen. Then: ■•re two millions out of work there just "•'«-, and many are earning but a precarious livelihood.