93

A.—6a

quite a lot is sent here in what is called " chilled " form, sufficiently cold to preserve it. That is an advantage in itself. There, are; the freights that I have mentioned, and the labour. The labour is ever so much cheaper ; I do not think they pay half or anything like half the wages that the producer in New Zealand pays for the labour he requires. They have all these advantages. lam not pressing for an answer on this, 1 simply ask the President of the Boarel of Trade to take this into account and see if something cannot be done to place the people, within the Empire in a slightly better position than the people outside the Km [lire. I think wo are entitled to consideration, and it all comes back to what we have been able; tei do in the way of preference. Extent of Preference accorded by New Zealand. Each country of the Empire gives preference to Britain —every country. Unfortunately, the figures at my disposal at present are of very little value, because we had a revision of the tariff at the end of 1921 and it has upset all the figures for 1922, because every time that people in the trade know where the duty is going to bo increased —it is marvellous how it gets out—we find there is a rush on the bonded stores and that sort eif thing, and there is not much left for about six months after the revision takes place. But I can say this : that approximately we purchase £20,000,000 worth of goods from Britain every year —and it is increasing. I shall be able to get later figures than those I have got. 1 shall be able to got them for the financial year instead of the calendar year. I cannot get them for the calendar year to be of much value, but wo give a. very substantial preference. All the countries do—l do not say that New Zealand stands by itself in that respect-—a very substantial preference to British manufacturers and to Britain generally ; and, so far as contracts are concerned, we make a point of seeing that when a local body imports machinery or imports ironwork or anything that is elutiable to New Zealand we take; precious good care that the preference, is extended by them. So far as the; General Government is concerned, I woulel not like; to say that we never by any chance buy anything outside the Empire which could be produced in it, or buy anything anywhere eslse that could be produced by Britain itself, but we; go as near it as we possibly can. In some cases 99 per cent, of the varieties of goods that we; require are purchased in Britain. I think I can find some figures to quote very briefly which are particularly interesting on this point. The; principle of preference was first placed before the New Zealand Parliament in 1903. It was made to apply to thirty-eight items. In 1907 it came up again and it was made to apply to 199 items. In 1917 it came up again and was made to apply to 218 items ; anil in 1921 it was made to apply to 425 items. That is a pretty good record, and I know the sentiment of my fellow-citizens in New Zealand, and I say we are prepared to go further e;ve:n than we; have gone up to the; present in, connection with preference to Britain. We are prepared to go further than we have done yet. With regard to the questions that I have asked, lam not pressing for details. I only say that I hope that the; propositions with regard to preference on dried fruits, and so on, will not end the matter, that we shall have another opportunity of considering this question, anel 1 hope that other items will be brought under the; scope of preference which have not yet been referred to at this Conference. Preference an Established Policy in South Africa. Mr. Burton : Mr. Chairman, the question of British preference was hotly debated in South Africa and settled twenty years ago. Since; then it has been practically an established fact with us, and I do not suppose that any one who is a serious politician in our country really expects to see it removed from our existing system. Perhaps I may just adel as a matter of interest, which may not be known to all. of us here, that so far back as the; first Imperial Conference, which took place in 1887, the principle of reciprocity in inter-Imperial preference was advocated by the South African representative, who was also a distinguished South African Dutchman, who, at Ottawa, proposed, amongst other things, that there should be a 2|-per-cent. tax imposed upon all foreign goods brought into any British port within the Empire for the purposes of common defence. Well, we have advanced since those days, but so far as the granting of a preference by South Africa to British manufacturers and British products is concerned that is a settled question with us. It seems to me from the discussion we have had here to-day that the point really is how far you are going in order to meet the advances which have been made so far by the Dominions in this respect. May I say, before; I conclude this part of the very brief statement lam going to make, that wo have given you so far for the last twenty years what is roughly a preference of one-fifth ; it is 3 per oent., broadly speaking, on 15 per cent., with a general ad valorem rate. The exact amount of benefit which that gives to the British producer or manufacturer is very difficult to determine. This morning Mr. Bruce gave us some calculations of the money value of the preferences given by Australia. Weil, I cannot but think that calculations of that sort are apt to bo very illusory, because in respe;ot eif many of the articles which are included, in our general ad valorem rate tho actual benefit to the; British producer is very little, for tho simple reason that whether preference were there or were not he woulel probably have the business in any case. South African Desire to extend Preferences subject to Local Needs. Now, as far as we are concerned we are anxious, within the limits which our local conditions impose upon us and our South African necessities —because although we are deeply interested in this matter of the co-operation of the people of the Empire, 'and we quite understand and value the necessity of such co-operation, our first duty quite; naturally is to the people within our own borders, as no doubt you feel yourselves at this very Conference that we are attending now within the limits therefore of our local situation and our local necessities we are desirous of doing what we can to improve what wo have done, to make an advance upon what we have done, in respect of this preference, and to