SPECIOUS PROTECTION.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 121, 25 February 1926, Page 7

SPECIOUS PROTECTION.

MOTOR NOTES.

MOTOR BODY BUILDERS. Want Unfair Advantages. T. o the rural onlooker the manoeuvres of the various industrial interests to secure protection, through the Customs, of their special interests, regardless of the common weal, give some cause for apprehension. The Motor Body Builders, for instance, are clamouring for State action against General Motors, Ltd., on account of that great firm’s commendable scheme whereby parts, including bodies, will be assembled in New Zealand. The Body Builders fear that by this method General Motors, Ltd., will be able to give the motorists a car body at a cheaper rate and thus oblige tile New. Zealand Body Builders to meet that competition. The fact of the matter is that various industries have sprung up, and, instead of battling their own way through with the ordinary Customs duty against importations, have demanded practically prohibitive imposts at the Customs in order that they may flourish under hothouse conditions, to the detriment of the public ah a whole, and particularly of the primary producers, who have finally to foot the bill, and who cannot regulate the selling prices of their products abroad. We find also that the flourmillers want wheat to come in duty free, while flour remains protected. Here again the producer (the grower of wheat) is required to be sacrificed for the benefit of the manufacturer. If the New Zealand Farmers’ Union members were alive to their own interests every branch would protest vigorously against all such unjust protection. It would be better policy to have flour duty-free than to put wheat in that category, and duty-free flour would do more harm to the millers than wheat free of Customs tariff would do to the growers. The millers have opened a door that intelligence might have dictated to them had been better left closed. And in regard to motors, it has long been conceded that the motor car is a necessity, especially to the primary producers, and they should use their political power to see to it that a firm like General Motors, Ltd., is not penalised for its bene: "ent enterprise. .