The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1921. MARKETING OUR PRODUCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1921. MARKETING OUR PRODUCE.

The problem of satisfactorily marketing the produce of the Dominion has reached an acute stage. We have recently published the views of prominent men who know at first hand what the Dominion’s primary produce has had to contend against on the Home market, and those who have carefully read the alarming disclosures made will readily conceive how the evils have grown, because it appears to have been no one’s duty to organise in defence of our produce and to institute an effective system that would ensure in the first place the utmost vigilance over the quality and presentability of the exported produce, and that it will, on reaching its destination, be sold under its proper name, in an attractive form, so as to secure the highest prices ruling from time to time. Only in this way can the reputation of New Zealand foodstuffs reach the high plane that its high quality justifies. The Danish system is an object lesson in its completeness and efficiency. Surely what the Danes can accomplish is not beyond the power of New Zealanders. For the last twenty years, stated Sir Thomas Mackenzie at Palmerston North recently, he had made report after report on this vital matter, and all these reports had become merely so much wasted time and energy; they had been thrown into the Government’s waste-paper basket. For an ex-Minister, who for some years served as High Commissioner in London, to make such a statement indicates there must be something radically wrong in Wellington, also on the part of the leading men engaged in production, otherwise the needed remedies would have long since been instituted, and there would not exist at the present time such grave abuses as hav£ been made public. The words of Sir Thomas Mackenzie speak for themselves:

“This country, while it was sub<i‘Vising schemes for internationalism, subsidising exhibitions which would not return as many pence as the pounds spent on them, and giving large contributions towards maintaining small battleships. had done and would do nothing adequate towards establishing a trade watch tower in its princi'pal market, officered by competent persons, whose special duty would be to study every movement of the markets, make it their business to the statistics of competitors, and keep the producers here in touch with what was actually going on.”

Many centuries ago the lay monks of the Brotherhood of St. Anthony. who traded from the Eastwith the Continent and Britain, and devoted the profits to the Spread of Christianity, (not only had their watch towers at. every port of call, but a complete system of depots and distributing agencies, yet we in New Zealand in the present century, with all the advantages that have accrued since the Middle Ages, can boast of no organisation, no trade watch towers, no effective means of meeting and overcoming the tactics of unscrupulous competitors and combines in restraint of trade. What is the consequence? According to Mr. H. D. Vavasour, our meat is put on the market in a most disgraceful way. “and figurativelyV as well as literally, it stinks in the nostrils of the people at Home,” it being no one’s responsibility to look after our business interests and protect our reputation. “Neither onr meat nor our butter gets, on the retail market on its merits,” the butter being largely used for the purpose of mixing with butter of inferior quality, so as to bri&g it ug to a

I more saleable standard, or else it lis sold as the best English. Admittedly, providing effectual remedies is not an easy matter, there being a diversity of views thereon. Sir Thomas Mackenzie advocates establishing some central authority in London, with the backing of the Government, to study closely every bearing of the trade and keep suppliers advised at this end, Where an alert tribunal should exist, representative of the producers and commercial interests, to deal with the reports and do their a best to bring their representations into effect. Mr. W. Stuart Wilson, after stressing the fact that the whole business hinges on finance, hacks up the proposal of the member for Otaki (Mi'. Field) for a conference of representatives of the Fanners’ Union, the Council of Agriculture, Chambers of Commerce, shipping companies, and all who are competent to speak on the question of marketing our produce in England, presumably also leading representatives of the dairy industry. He also emphasises the fact that the whole future of the Dominion depends on the proper solution of the problem Mr. Vavasour considers it is imperative for the producers to combine under one Government system if their meat is to be marketed to the best advantage; also that the Government should engage a man of the highest commercial ability, at £3OOO a year, to attend to the business side of the country’s interests at Home. His other suggestions , include a national grading system of meat, the establishing of distributing depots all over England, though not embarking on State shops, and that it is essential to distribute our produce between London, Hull, Liverpool and Bristol ports instead of consigning the gredt bulk to London, It must be said that the Government are now alive to the need for. a representative at Home, the Minister for Agriculture stating in the House on Tuesday night that he was doing his best to get the producers to set up a committee and appoint a representative to go Home and look after New Zealand’s interests there. So much valuable time has already, been lost that, it is to be hoped there will be no further delay. Our High Commissioner’s office is not doing what it might very well do. Sir James Allen makes a splendid diplomatic representative of the Dominion, but he has no commercial training, and cannot, therefore, be expected to do justice to this important side of the work of the office. The Government could advantageously appoint to the High Commissioner’s office a competent man to attend to commercial matters, who could work in with the representative appointed by the producers. If Sir Thomas Mackenzie’s services were available in the latter connection no better appointment could be made, for few men have had greater experience and insight into the marketing of colonial produce than he has had.