The Waikato Times TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1937. THE LARGER ISSUES.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20274, 17 August 1937, Page 6

The Waikato Times TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1937. THE LARGER ISSUES.

The fact that the British Government has not yet defined its policy with regard to dairy produce was mentioned by Mr Nash as a factor in preventing the completion of any definite trading agreement with the Mother Country. Apparently in the meantime the question of a levy depends upon market price levels and as they fluctuate it must be admitted that the basis is not at all satisfactory. Mr Nash opposed as strongly as he could the principle of the levy, but it cannot yet be ruled out as a possibility. After several months of negotiating the position is still very indefinite, and the hope is that the representations made by the New Zealand Minister of Marketing will prove effective in preventing any barrier being raised to the free marketing of the produce of the Dominion. There will be no levy with regard to meat, but matters in connection with the dairy trade will be dependent on ruling prices. That introduces an element of uncertainty that is unwelcome.

There are, however, the wider issues which Mr Nash went Home to discuss, the general agreement which figured so prominently in the party’s pre-election plans. Certain principles were involved, new in the realm of trade between the two countries. They were mentioned by the Minister in several of the speeches he delivered in the leading industrial centres. For instance, speaking at Bristol, Mr Nash said: “ New Zealand is prepared to offer to the United Kingdom all the proceeds of her exports so that these proceeds may be utilised for the purchase of your goods, that is, after debt and freight charges have been met.” Much the same statement was made in the speech delivered at Sheffield, and the Minister added that the Dominion would go even further. It was prepared, he said, to give the United Kingdom a monopoly of the sale of certain classes of goods, even though those goods might be in certain cases more expensive, though no more than those of the home market. This was the real issue governing the proposal. The inability to conclude anything definite with regard to dairy produce may have held up the negotiations for establishing the system. Discussions are to be continued, as the Minister said before he left London that “everything remained in negotiable form.” It would be interesting to know if the basis is that proposed by the New Zealand representative; whether the British Ministers were inclined to accept the offer of a monopoly in the supply of certain goods, and the further offer to use the available balance from the sale of produce for the purchase of British manufactures. How did the Secretary of the Board of Trade view that plan? The matter is of importance for, according to the Prime Minister and others, this agreement is to be the pivot on which the economic policy of the Government here is to turn. Mr Nash is convinced that the efforts of Mr Savage and himself “ would ultimately convince them that we are on the right road. ’ If that was a reference to the basic principle of the Government’s proposals then it may make the completion of a trade agreement a matter for the distant future. This is among the many things that the community hopes Mr Nash will make the subject of a more detailed review at the earliest possible moment. It can be reduced to a single query. Was the proposed basis of the bargain acceptable to the British authorities?