WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1927, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

TARIFF AND LOC AL IXDUSTR—.B. (Special to “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, January 19. The Tariff Commission will begin its sittings almost immediately and "ill he snowed up with evidence, for pratieally all the industries ill the country seem to think that their very existence depends upon Customs harriers and nothing else. We shall hear a good deal about dumping, about the standard of living and similar more or less extraneous matters. ’J he woollen mills have made it very clear that they will press for an increase in the tariff, the boot and shoe manufacturers arc similarly disposed and the flourmillers and sawmillers are also determined to press for higher duties, and there are many other industries that want the tariff specially manipulated to suit their requirements. In all this no consideration is given to the public who must boar the brunt of increased Customs duties. The Australian tariff is de-

signed for the protection of Australian local i»ulustries. and is uiicompromising S uch, yet the imports into Austrn|la continue to show expansion, indeed the imports exceeded the exports. Ihe tariff lias not shut out goods, and it is difficult to see how it can do so. Australia’s exportable wool clip is worth from 40 to 50 millions sterling. Australia cannot expect foreign countries including Britain to buy her wheat and wool, with out her in return buying goods from foreign countries. Trade cannot run one way only. It must move both ways to he of any service to the communities. And the same thing applies to Xew Zealand. An increase in the tariff will not shut out imports, hut will force the people of Xew Zealand to pay higher prices for the goods they import and necessarily for the local productions that are protected by tlis tariff. It is recognised that Xew Zealand cannot indulge in the luxury of absolute free trade for there must be some revenue derived from the Customs tariff, hut there is a big difference between free trade and freedom to trade. What the advocates of protection through the Customs appear to desire is such rates as will go very near shutting out foreign manulac-

i uves. [t piny lie asked is tin* Customs tariir the only veinedv fov the depressed industvios of the country? Ts theve no other direction in which re lid cnn he found other than the Customs taviff? It would he absuvd to answer these questions in the negative. In asking fov an incvease in the taviff the industvialists are taking the line of least resistance, at least they believe it to he such, and have the veto re given no 'consideration of othev possible remedies.. Theve ave othev vemedies notwithstanding the indifference of the manufacture]' to probe into them. Tet ns take the woollen industry. It can he stated with little risk of contradiction, that there are move woollen and worsted mills in the country than is waviautecl by the trade offering. The inevitable result of this is that competition between the mills is keen and price-cut-ting is rampant. Then again there are the costs of upkeep o! the uneconomic units. Ceucral manager-, secretaries, directions and what-not making overhead charges a tax that has to he Vceovered from the consumers. The tendency of the modern business world is to reduce overhead costs and to go in for mass production. Mergers and amalgamation are tin* order of the day and quite recently there has been the absorption of the Hank oi \ ictoria In the Commercial Hanking ( oy. ot Sydney. and the absorption of ine Oceanic Steam. Navigation Coy bv the t\ bite Star Line.* Kartels and combinations have been carried on as far as international trade affairs. If a merger of the woollen mills of New Zealand were arranged, and that does not seem to he an insuperable diliiculty. there would immediately follow a very great reduction in operating charges, the uneconomic units could be eliminated and the machinery and plant removed to where they would prove useful. The surviving mills could specialise in production, mass production, would cheapen costs, and it is not drawing the long how to suggest that it would he possible even to work tip an export trade in travelling rugs and perhaps in other manufactures. A merger scheme may appeal- large hut it is quite feasible, and is worlliv of the consideration of those who control the woollen mills of the country. What applies to woollen mills applies in some degree to other industries such as hoot and shoe manufacturing. The brewers set the example of a merger on a large scale, and the bonds and debentures of the New Zealand Breweries Coy were readily taken up bv the public. Our industrialists require a wider vision and need to come awav from the seclusion of the tariff barrier.