DUTY ON MEAT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 157, 25 February 1932, Page 5

DUTY ON MEAT

i (Press. Assjq.

BRITISH PROPOSALiS basis for agreement wltih dominions at ottawa DI'SCUSSION m COMMON.S

— By Te-legratib— CppyrJglit) .

' Rec. Feb.. 24, 7.-5 p.m. LONDON, Tuesday. The debate on the Ijnport Dufies ' Bill was continued in the House of Commons. Colonel L. C. M. S. Amery (Conservative) said that the taxation on meat would yield five times as much as taxation on maize. The Argentine had no other market for her meat than Great Britain. The duty of a half-penny per pound would be borne by the producers and not by the British consumer. British Ministers at Ottawa must be~ free to agree'on duties on meat. Sir Henly Page-Croft (Conservative) said that a duty on meat furnished greater opportunities for a satisfactory agreement with the Dominions than one on any other product. In Australia, New Zealand and the Irish Free State meat and pig produets were uppermost in consideration, and taxation on foreign supplies would produce a substantial revenue and would assist in opening reciprocity with the- Argentine. He aslced was the Government going to Ottawa empowered to offer preferences on meat produets, or was the door already closed. Sir Stafford Cripps (Labour) said that Mr. Runciman (President of the Board of Trade) had given specific election pledges that meat and wheat would not be taxed. Mr. Neville Chamberlain (Chancellor of the Exchequer), winding up the debate, said the problem of the stock raiser was not easily solved in the Bill. It was difficult to see how to give adequate protection without duties higher than 10 per cent., but an import duty was not the only method. He asked the House to have patience. The . cost of living was at present a vulnerable point. The Gov-