EMPIRE TRADE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 208, 27 April 1932, Page 7

EMPIRE TRADE

CONCERN AMONG N.Z. MANUFACTURERS feXPRESSED. OTTAWA CONFERENCE PROJECT The opinion that New Zealand manufacturers should not be unduly apprehensive regarding the deeisions to be come to at the Ottawa Conference was expressed at the meeting of the Dunedin Manufacturers' Association recently by the president (Mr. J. G. Jeffrey), who dealt with the subject in the course of his report on the confere'nce of presidents held in Wellington on April 6. Mr. Jeffrey said that the main matter dealt with in Wellington had been in connection with the Ottawa Conference. He detailed the discussions which had taken place with the Prime Minister in regafd to the representation at the cohference from Na v Zealand, and said that the Prime Minister had said he thought their federation should send two delegates. What they had to consider was whether they should send one delegate or two and how they -tfere to help to pay the expenses of the delegate or delegates. They had been of the opinion after their discussion with the Prime Minister that they should do their best to be represented. They had to reniember, in connection with the expenses, that there was 20 per cent. surcharge on tlie Canadian currency. Ceriain Apprehension. There was a certain apprehension amongst manufacturers as to how they would be affeeted by the Ottawa Conference. He personally felt, and the Prime Minister had also stated, that New Zealand manufacturers need not feel unduly apprehensive. New Zealand was not; in compar:son with her sister dominions, a high-tariff eountry. Mr. Jeffrey pointed out that. 42.8 per cent. of our imports, except for a definite revenue-producing primage duty, entered free of duty, and including specific duties charged on spirits, wine, tobacco and tea — dutieS" which were definitely for revnue purposes — • 80.8 per cent. of goods entered on a tariff of 20 per cent. ad valorem or under, or if the 25 per cent. sehedules were added 89.7 per cent. of the total. Quite 50 per cent. of the remainder was accounted for by either luxury duties or duties on foreign goods. New Zealand manufacturers should . not, therefore, view the Ottawa Conference with undue apprehension. Other dominions would have to go a long way before they would have reached the position of preference j;o Britain and the reasonable tariff s operating against British goods obtaining in this dominion. An Analysi's. A careful and unbiased analysis by one of England's most important financial houses — Erlangers Ltd., bf Moorgate, London — showed that possibly 5 per cent. of our industri'es might be said to be completely foreign to the trend of the country's natural development, and a further 8 per cent, might suffeil severely if left unprotected to the blast of unfettered overseas competition. In other respects the manufacturing industries of the eountry added to the wealth of the State and of individuals without detracting in ahy way from the prosperity of primary prodUcers. It might be stated that 87 per cent. of the output of manufacturing iiidustries was of direct benefit to the prim-

ary producers of the coUntry; it ■ either elaborated their raw material, supplied them with essentials for their productions, or performed social serivces which were of a purely local concern. The other 13 per cent. might be said to be the offspring of an aspiration to become a manufacturing nation. In this respect New Zealand industries differed fundamentally from the many manufacturing industries of Canada and Australia, in both of which countries highly protected industries and in many cases industries of a nature completely foreign to the characteristics of the eountry had been fostered for individual or regional benefit, but to the detriment Of pastoral, agricultural and other primary production. The war might have given New Zealand better pfices for her produce and stimulated the purchasing power of her people, but it had not seduced her leaders into becoming protagonists of freak industries. The meeting then went into committee tq co'iisider the question of representation at the conference, and the niatter of meeting the expenses of the delegate or delegates who might be sent by the federation.