DUTY ON BOOTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17286, 29 September 1916, Page 2

DUTY ON BOOTS.

TO TUB EDITOR. Sir, —I would just ask your indul- _ genco in order that we may make a : correction jn our letter which appear- : ed in your, issue of Tuesday last, wherein I stated that the duty c-n boots was lower than under the old tariff. These figures wero queried by four correspondent, Mr O. H- Nightingale, and on investigation I ( hud that an error in addi-i tion crept in when working ou&. the 1-5 per cent duty on _ the women s, boots, the figures 2340 being added up as 1840, thus rendering my figures 10d ! out on iko women’s boots, the earn® proportion being perpetuated in the , other instance quoted. ! But while this duty comes eftib at a fraction less on the women's footwear than the duty •under the old tariff ana the present duty in men’s wear about! three halfpence more than under tho previous tariff, this trifling increase on a lbs nair of boots, we submit, does not justify our correspondent's tion‘that this so-called increase of duty, was necessary to protect an . alleged t decadent industry, especially in view) of the increased etttput by the «maller\ number of hands employed. ' This altei-ation in the tariff was more- / Iy made in order to penalise moro' heavily the importation of the shoddy article.—l am, etc., RONALD S. BADGER, Secretary N.Z. Board of Industrie. Christchurch, September 28.