THE DUTY ON CYCLES

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2175, 3 September 1907, Page 2

THE DUTY ON CYCLES

The correspondent who writes censuring us for presuming to express in opinion at variance with his own on tho question of bicycle duties has scarcely been as frank with our readers as he might have been. He objects to our statement that a duty ol £2 will mean an increased cost to tho public, as ho points out that certain high grade machines already pay this amount. The natural answer is that if these importers have jiaid £2 in the past an alteration in tho method of paying tlio same sum is unlikely to have the beneficial effect upon local industry’ that our correspondent believes will result. As a matter of fact, tho number of cycles which in recent years have paid £2 in duty is so small as to form an exceedingly small proportion of the total number imported. On the majority of cycles landed ill this country a £2 duty would constitute a substantial increase, and if tho cycle riding public is not called upon to make good the difference it is hard to ascertain w’lio will. Mr. White-Parsons’ assertion that tho cycle dealers would, in view of tho concession made, reduce their present profits so that tho public should not suffer is too ridiculous to require refutation. As in tlio past, the retailor will naturally acquire all tho profit that the laws of competition will permit him to obtain. The main fact drawn attention to by us has been studiously avoided by our correspondent. This is that cycle •manufacturing as a profitable business is impracticable in Now Zealand, owing to tho remarkable extent to which tho business has been specialised in tho older world. All that can be done in N.Z. is to “assemble” or put together, enamel, and electroplate tho parts that have already boon manufactured in other countries. Becanso this assembling moans tlio keeping of a certain amount of work in this country, wo favor tho removal of duty’ on tlio completed parts required by the assemblers and the retention of existent duties-. At the same time it is only right that the public,should know the juice they are paying for what after all is not a very ambitions ' industry’. Our correspondent states that under 1000 mechanics aro employed in the cycle industry an N.Z. to-day. As a matter of fact the last N.Z. Year Book quotes the number as 395 whilst tho amount paid in duty w.as over £26,000; surely a heavy tax for such a result. Yet Mr. White-Parsons is sanguine enough to believe that in two years, by tho imposition of a duty that he claims will not cause any advance in ■prices so far as tho general public is concerned, this number will be raised to at least 3000. Even at the risk of offending our correspondent and of incurring the displeasure of the Wellington Industrial Association, we must continue to express the hope that the Minister of Customs will not be so foolish as to add to the heavy burdens already borne by the cycle riding public by imposing a tax of £2 on every machine imported.