Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1911. TRADE WITH ARGENTINE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10161, 10 February 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1911. TRADE WITH ARGENTINE.

New Zealand has a Trade Representative in a Mr Gow, whose chief miseion is to get around the world and find markets for New Zealand produce.. He has visited South Africa and the Argentine Republic, and, at latest reports, was supposed to be •somewhere in the vicinity of New York. What he lias done, or • is .doing, tp promote trade between New Zealand arid foreign countries, is somewhat of a Departmental secret, and what his cost is to the Dominion does not matter very much now that the five million loan* is available. It is interesting to note, however,'ihat the knowledge acquired by him iri the Argentine leads him to express-his confidence that "a splendid market "exists iri South America for New "Zealand apples, jams, preserves, "hops, hemp, rope, and timber, pro"viding that these products can be "landed at a price that will enable "them to compete with goods from pother countries." The proviso is important, for it contains the crux of the whole question, assuming that we have a surplusage of the articles Mr Gow named, which we have not. Timber, for instance, is a commodity which we cannot afford to export. But, about the proviso. Can we, even if we would, land apples, and hops, and jams, and hemp, and rope at a price which will enable us to- compete with other countries? Mr Gow knows that we cannot, and it is absurd for him to make such a proviso. ■ Why does he not get to work and find markets for our frozen meat, and wool, and butter, and cheese? These are the articles upon which the future of New Zealand specially depends. Why. does he

not mention these things ? New Zealand cannot afford to have a "Trade Representative" roving about the world in pursuit of the unattainable. It wants something practical done. And, if Mr Gow cannot do it, lie should be placed on the honorary unattached list as speedily as" possible.