The Press Friday, January 14, 1927. Primary and Secondary Industries

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18899, 14 January 1927, Page 8

The Press Friday, January 14, 1927. Primary and Secondary Industries

The proposed co-operation between the New Zealand Manufacturers' Association and the farmers' Union is a curious economic development. There is,no reason, to be sure, why any industry iii New Zealand should not wish other industries well, but the interests of the primary and secondary industries have been made conflicting interests by the tariff. Until quite lately the secondary industries gave no thought at all to the unsheltered labour of (he men on the land, nor were they under any obligation to think of it. The manufacturers' organisations did not realise, perhaps, that the increasing protection given to them was raising the costs of the farmer, who, selling most of his products in foreign markets for whatever the world would give him, had no means of passing on these charges. The farmers themselves have not been conscious for very long of the unfairness of a fiscal system which produces these results. They have realised it at last, and they are now inclined to demand that those primary products which are threatened by imports ought to enjoy at least as large a measure of protection as the products of the city factories. Their ease is ao strong that the Manufacturers' Association is obliged to recognise it, and hence the Association has proposed to the Farmers' Union that a conference should be held to deVise plaus of united action. The Union seems to have thought well of the proposal, and the conference is to bo held. But it is to be hoped that the, farmers' representatives will go cautiously. If (hey should commit themselves to joint action for an upward revision of the tariff, the farmers will not be much better off, although the secondary industries will obviously gain much if they can claim that their demand for higher duties, is supported by the rural community. The fanners will be unwise if they give up their freedom to oppose such fiscal changes as will maintain or increase the high costs of production. They can demand adequate protection without seeking the aid of the manufacturers, for the case for the protection of the wheat-grower is from every point of view stronger than the case for the protection of any other industrv whatever.