COST OF LIVING REPORT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1534, 2 September 1912, Page 4

COST OF LIVING REPORT.

CHANGES FORESHADOWED BY HOU. F. M. B. FISHER. (Bj Telegraph.—Frees Association.) Christchurch, September 1. In the course of an interview this morning, tho Hon. F. M. BJ Fisher said that thero was no question that the report of tlio Cost of Living Commission was of considerable value to the Government. Tho Massey Government was alive to tho necessity of some of the reforms recommended by tho Commission. For instance, tho recommendation affecting imported and locally-made boots, shoes, and slippers was a very valuable one. Mr. Fisher said that he had a Bill in courso of preparation, and hoped to shortly introduce it, and put it through tho House this session. .It would deal effectively with that class of goods, whether imported into the Dominion or made here, and sold as being' a genuino article. In point of fact there was a great extent of shoddy in tho worst sense of the term. Tho Government did not propose to take measures to prevent the public from purchasing composition cardboard boots if they wanted them, but tho Government wero certainly going to stop goods of that description being sold to the public as being leather all through. It was not tho business of any one individual to raiso very strong objections to buying shoddy boots, but it was certainly tho business of tho stato to protcct citizens from being imposed upon. Ho hoped, as time went on, that tho public would realise that the new Government was determined that this species of commercial fraud should bo stamped out. Tho report of the Commission, said Mr. Fisher, would prdbnbly come as a shock to many of those out-and-out protectionists, who believed in the development of what were called "hot-house industries.' It was very essential to note, in connection with the Commission's report, that such recommendations should have come from a Commission upon which Labour was so strongly represented. Mr. Fisher went on to sa.v that the very object which he had in mind last week, in appointing Mr. Spcncc, Collector of Customs at lnvercargill, to go Home to England, to represent the Customs Department, was to prevent the importation into New Zealand of goods made on tho Continent bv sweated labour, shipped in England, and exported to New Zealand as being goods of British manufacture, thus escaping preferential tnvitf. Mr. Fisher added that the nUuro of tho Commission's report showed the wisdom of the Government in withholding tarilf proposals this session. Tlio evidence taken before tlio Commission should be thoroughly digested before anything was doiio in that matter.