INDUSTRIES AND PRIMARY INTERESTS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 149, 27 June 1933, Page 6

INDUSTRIES AND PRIMARY INTERESTS

(To the Editor.) Sir,—While some allowance tnuit be made for the desire ot the paid propagandist to burst into the public? Press on the slightest provocation, one »iay be permitted to inquire whether Mr. A. E. Mander, ceneral secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation, really expects to be taken .seriously whefl ho has the presumption to BUfXßost that men like Sir VTm. Hunt and Jlr. Wm. Goodfellow should refrain from expressing themselves on matters of Imperial and national policy affecting the future welfare of the Dominion, eimiilx because Ah*. Tarifi Comtnisßion

is sitting?.' Mr. .Mander Hakes it upon himself to' rebuke a man like Sir Wm. Hunt, a commercial leader of real worth and eminence, who has been honoured by the King for his services to agriculture and the Dominion as a whole, because, forsooth, at the annual meeting of an association of which he is a member he expressed his views as to the desirable trend of future trade relations between the Mother Country and New Zealand. One views this presumption with amazemeut. Does Mr. Mander desire to be the only dog that may bark on tariff matters, for this is "when I open my mouth let no dog bark" with a vengeance. If Mr. Mander will possess his soul in patience he doubtless will see both the gentlemen he mentions,' as well as others, appear before the Tariff Commission where I dare predict they will not be subjected to that • correction on clcmcnt'afy economics which Mr. ■ Mander for instance enjoyed on the land question at the hands of Professor Murphy. It is, of course, to Mr. Mander's personal interest to ■ represent that there is intense antagonism between the domestic industries and the primary interests, and to advance himself as the little David active in defence. I have before pointed out that this is wrong, but Mr. Mander still persists in his representations of ill will. Evidence already given before the Tariff Commission by farming interests shows that the greatest goodwill is entertained by farmers towards any industry which can establish itself in New Zealand on an economic basis without undue mollycoddling. Sound farmers take the viewpoint that as the bulk of our produce is sold to Britain—our only free market —it is sound sense and patriotism to buy in return from the Mother Country as much as possible of the manufactures in which she has both a positive and relative advantage. Mr. Mander is fighting apparently for the policy of making everything willy nilly in New Zealand, even perchance to the growing of bananas at Stewart Island, which, as Professor Murphy indicated, could be done with sufficient protection. Mr. Mander must think the Government is as easily rattled as .himself if ho boss in the reasoned comments of farm leaders ■Ihe campaign he imagines. Mr. Mander, in a word, would seem to be putting up a bogy man at which to throw coconuts. This can be easily overdone.—l am, etc., A. J. HEIGHWAY.