NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 55, 28 November 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

As it is drafted, the Customs Bill seems in a great measure to meet the views of those who advocate a reasonably flexible tariff, capably of being adjusted to changing conditions of tirade. Wide powers are proposed under which the tariff may be altered in special cases for the protection of local industry by Order-in-Council, subject to approval, variation, or revocation by Parliament. This presumably would fully establish the principle of dealing with particular duties as occasion may demand without opening up the whole tariff for revision. The anti-dumping clauses are exceedingly drastic. Ono of them provides that where imported goods of a kind produced in New Zealand are sold to an importer at less than the current domestic value of such goods, the Minister of Customs may impose a duty not exceeding “the difference between the actual selling price of the goods and the current domestic value.’’ Apparently these powers, exercised to the full would enable the Minister to place any Dominion industry on an equality in competition with the most favourably situated foreign industry. Even if goods of foreign origin were sold at a fair profit on their cost of production they might, if sold at loss than the “current domestic value, 'be heavily penalised under the clause in question. Desirable as it is to protect and foster local industry, these very wide powers of course would have to he exercised with discretion. It seems likely, however, that a policy of determining the amount of dumping duties by differences in price, or the amount of bounties or special railway or shipping concessions granted in foreign countries, will yield more satisfactory results in working practice than the percentage additions to duty imposed in British and other anti-dump-ing legislation. » ft * * It will be interesting to see how the Commonwealth Parliament regards the Amalgamated Wireless Company’s scheme for direct wireless communication with Britain. The Imperial authorities havepinned their faith to the link system with relay stations, and under their plan a message from Melbourne to London would be retransmitted three or four times. Mr. Hughes opposed this plan at the Imperial Conference, and spoko strongly in favour of direct longdistance communication, but without, however, securing any reversal of policy. The Imperial Wireless Committee, in recommending the relay system, stated that it had kept a "listening-in” watch on all the long-distance services, and none of them is a success. Interruptions are frequent, repetitions the order of tho day, and the consequent delay and inconvenience far greater than would be involved in tho retransmission of a clear and intelligible message. This report was compiled in 1920, and tho Imperial Government is now giving’ effect to it by the opening of some of the stations proposed in it. At tho same time, it is noticeable that France, Germany, and the United States aro all going in for remarkably long-distance services. Whether their undertakings will provide evidence to show that the British experts were too conservative and timorous in their views remains to be seen. Once a reasonable efficiency is obtained tho advantages of direct communication between London and each Dominion, and between Dominion and Dominion, aro enormous, and the relay system is at best only a makeshift, although if the British view is correct it may be advantageous at the moment.

Another German aniline dye works ha”, been the scene of an explosion, though apparently with only a small death-roll of two, as against the 800 lives lost at Oppau in September. The Oppau explosion set many people speculating as to its cause. The aniline works of the Baden Company were the principal source of supply for German poison gas during the war, and it was known that important .experiments were being conducted at Oppau al the time the. explosion took place. Exactly what was tho nature of the work was kept a secret, but the general opinion of the newspaper correspondents seemed to he that Germany would hardly be likely to be preparing poison gas or explosives for tho next wag right under the noses of the Allied army of occupation. The theory to which opinion leaned was that the explosion probably occurred in tho course of experiments for commercial purposes, and it was suggested that it was possible that some of the new fertiliser mixtures containing nitrates and nitro-gen-containing compounds may well have proved to have unsuspected dangers when stored under bulk conditions. The Allied Missions seem to have an unsatisfactc. y time in their efforts to inspect these aniline works, and it may be that experimenters are at work on chemical substances for use in any future war that may be fought. In any case the great activity in the industry which has been reported of late, shows how busy and determined tho Germans are to rehabilitate their country. If their ideas of rehabilitation involve more war it will be a tragedy to the world, but it is for the Allies to show that tho path of peaceful co-operation with Europe and Tmerica offers Germany more than she can ever gain from any war.