MANUFACTURERS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19160, 17 November 1927, Page 15

MANUFACTURERS.

MINISTER ON TARIFF.

LAST NIGHT'S MEETING. The executive of the Canterbury Manufacturers' Association met last evening. There were present: Messrs A. W. - Beaven (chairman), B. H. Webb, H. Bursori, S. H. Maddren, A. M. West, Harry Willis, D. Colquhoun, J. W. Thomas, E. Archbold. I. Woolf, and Harold Bradley. The Hon. Mr Downie Stewart wrote acknowledging the receipt of a' letter from the Association, which expressed appreciation on behalf of the manufacturers of the man- , ner in which their representations for increased duties were received. The Minister wrote that he quite realised that a number of important industries were ' extremely disappointed at the recommendation of the Tariff Commission and with the Customs Bill as passed. However, the Association members would recognise, as he pointed out in introducing the Bill, that New Zealand was in a transition stage, and there was still a i violent division of opinion on the question of high protection. It was unfortunate that the revision took place this year while the farmers were depressed and prices not satisfactory. Even with moderate changes made in tho tariff, they would notice that in the North Island branches of the Farmers' Union were passing resolutions denouncing 'the tariff and' declaring that they had been betrayed in the interests of secondary industries. The Minister would be obliged if they' would advise the executive that he had not lost sight of their representations, and at present he was conferring with the Minister for Industries and Commerce and the Prime Minister as to whether further investigations would be made by the reconstituted Board of Trade, or some similar body, into the difficulties of the boot industry, the woollen industry, and others. "That this Association enters a strong protest against the principle involved in the action of a responsible Minister of the Crown, the Hon. Mr- Nosworthy, under the guise of a farmer, sheltering himself behind the privilege of the House in making a serious statement against the business methods of so well known and respectable a company as Kempthorne, .Prosser," was the text of a message from the Dunedin Manufacturers' Association, which had already been sent to the Prime Minister. Several members expressed ignorance of what Mr -Nosworthy had said, and the question was referred to the Dominion conference. Organiser's Report. The organiser (Mr E. H. Marriner) submitted a report on the work of the year. He said that in the future it was hoped to touch such places as the West Coast, Ashburton, and Timaru. He recommended that the incoming executive consider the advisability of holding exhibitions of New Zea-land-made goods at Timaru and Greymouth. .