DOMINION NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 83, 3 December 1912, Page 3

DOMINION NEWS.

RECIPROCAL TARIFF. (Per Press Association.) Dunedin, December 2. At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce and those intimately connected with commercial pursuits today, the question of a reciprocal tariff with Australia was discussed.

Mr W. C. Reynolds moved: “That this meeting, held under the auspices of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, is unanimously of opinion that the present is an opportune time for endeavouring to bring about a readjustment of the tariff existing between Australia and New Zealand, and place it oh a more equitable basis than it is at, present; and that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Minister of Customs.” The resolution was carried.

It was agreed to hold a meeting on December 9, and the members elected a committee to consider the matter of a reciprocal tariff from all points of view, and to report its findings. The question of taking the duty off wheat was fully discussed, several members expressing the opinion that such a course would kill the wheat trade in the Dominion and seriously injure millers.

Mr Harraway stated that he voiced the decision of all the millers in saying that they were opposed to the duty being taken off wheat. They felt that the wheat growing industry had grown under a protective duty, as also had the milling industry, and to take the duty off would be a cruel hardship to growers, and the result would be that no wheat would be grown in Now Zealand. If the millers could not be heard at the Conference at Christchurch, they would he heard at the bar of the House when the matter came before Parliament.