ON THE OTHER SIDE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 215, 9 June 1920, Page 8

ON THE OTHER SIDE

TARIFF HELPS AUSTRALIA'S INDUSTRIES

HOME PRODUCTION BOOM Mr. C. J. Ward, vice-president of tho Wellington Industrial Association, who recently returned from a business visit to Australia, speaks enthusiastically on the effect of the fiscal policy in force there. The protective tariff was doing wonders lor the Australian manufacturers, ho said yesterday, and it was going Jo do more. In tho future Australia would depend less and less on importations from Europe and America, nnd it was a/i going to help the country to be independent of the rest of the world, and to rest on its own bottom. This policy not only meant moro work and lower prices, but it meant the retention of money in the Commonwealth which in tho past had been sent across the seas to enrich manufacturers and middlemen 12,000 miles awav. The effect of the high protective tariff was apparent everywhere. Balkrat, once a flourishing mining centre, was now a flourishing industrial town, with two woollen mills which employed from 1200 to 1500 hands, and when Mr. Ward was over thero n paper stated that "one well acquainted with the industry prophesis that Ballarat will outstrip Mos» giel, in New Zealand, which is worldfamous for all-wool rugs." The oncestruggling woollen mills at Ipswich had been converted into a prosperous concern, and engineering works, boot and clothing factories, were springing up all over tho country—born of the Common-: wealth's fiscal policy, which was making it difficult for people to favour tho imported article. It was an object lesson in what a stiff tariff, firmly applied, could do for a country rich in natural resources. Basic Wage Ctalms. The basic wage issue, Mr. Ward found, had claimed a good deal of attention, and a commission had been set up to arrive nt some standard of basic wages. A clerk who was examined put his claim in for r-CGO a year for clothes alone. He included silk socks and handkerchiefs, and tho witness confessed that without such articles in his wardrobe he would bo apt to lose his self-respect. Tho following is a list of clothing claimed, on behalf of the Conference of Federated Unions, beforo the lederal Basic Wage Commission, as being necessary to ensure a standard of comfort for a working man:—Three suits (made to order), for two years, or ono suit with two extra trousers for ono year, at ,£9 per suit and £2 ss. per.pair of trousersj two hats, at lGs. 6a. each; one cap, at 4s. lid.; nine pairs Hocks, at ss, 9d.; four tics, at Bs. lid.; two pairs braces, at .Is. lid.; six working shirts, at Us.; three best shirts, at. 10s. 6d.; two singlets (summer), at Bs. Od.; two singlets (winter), at IBs. Od.; two underpants (summer), nt 9s. 3d.; two underpants (winter)', at 175.) 12 collars, at Is. 2d.; two pairs pyjamas, at 16s. 6d.j one dozen handkerchiefs, at Is. Id.;, one house coat (to last two years), at 305.; one pair flannel trousers (to last two years), at 355.; two pair working trousers, at 275. 6d.; two pair dungarees, at 9s. 6d.; one overcoat (to last tlueo years), at £5 55,; one umbrella (to last threo years), at 135.; oil or mackintosh, averago ait 335. 6d. and 655. respectively for two years; one bathing costume, at 9s. fid.; ono pair best boots, at 355,; two pairs working boots, at 225. 6d. n pair; ono pair.rubber-soled boots, at 9s. Ud.j one pair slippers, at Rs. lid.; one pair goloshes, at 7s. lid.; six.pair boot laces, at 3d. a pair; six repairs, at 7s. each. This represents a total annual cost for a man's clothing of .£l7 19s. Od. Encouraging Local Manufacture The Pair Profits'Commission'was sitting whon Mr. Ward was in Melbourne One Victorian M.P. (Mr. W. C. Hill) testified that he had - bought a suit length of 3} yards at 325. a yard. The actual! weight of tho material was 3 l-51b., and the originnl appraised value of the wool in it was 27d, a lb. The chairman told the M.P. that he had paid exactly what he had demanded for wheat —the parity of .tho .world's prices. If anyone was to blame it was the manufacturer of the tweed in England, not the tailor in Australia, and it was plainer than tho noses on.ofll tho faces in Victoria that Australia must manufacture her own requirements. Why should they send all their wool to lingland for others to make huge profits out of them—the people of tho country which produced the wool? Australia, sooner or later, would become a great manufacturing country as .will! as a great producer of primary pro. ducts, and nothing had helped moro to hasten that end than the post-war riot of high prices for English goods. In the long run, Australia would be tho better for the experience it was passing through now, and there was no - reason whv Now Zeaiand should not also profit in the same way. When Mr. Ward left there was a remarkable "own manufactures" campaign in progress. In a hundred clever and ingenious ways the publio was being made to realise that home manufacture was almost as important as production; the one could not exist without the other, and there was i.o nason on earth why they should bo divided by 12,000 miles of ocean. What hod sustained the anomaly in the past was simply the small wages and lower cost of manufacture in England, but war hnd proved a great world-leveUor, and the Vagcs gulf had been closed with a snap since Germany's big mistake. In connection Jvith the margin of profit that' could bo considered a fair thin", the Fair Profits Commission in Melbourne ruled as follows— "This commission has already recommended to the Government that tho profits on the whole of the tweeds, twilts, and worsteds jn Victoria, whether imported or manufac-' ■hired, should be restricted to an average of 20 per cent., and a maximum of 25 per cent, in particular cases."