FAITH UNSHAKEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 170, 8 October 1927, Page 10

FAITH UNSHAKEN

PROTECTION’S WORTH REPORT FROM AUSTRALIA SUPPORTERS SCEPTICAL Auckland protectionists hesitate to believe that the Australian Tariff Board is condemning protection because manufacturers have used it as an instrument for raising prices, and they suggest that not until the full report has been examined can an accurate judgment be made. Fuller information, and a copy of the report, have therefore been ordered, ir a cable message dispatched this morning. IT did not follow, said Mr. J. A. C. Alum, president of the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association, that such evils under protection in Australia would be repeated in New Zealand. As a matter of fact, the New Zealand manufacturers, in their plea for protection, had given to the Government the definite assurance that there would be no exploitation of the principle. Prices of the manufactured product would not be raised, under any circumstances, unless the cost of raw materials compelled it, or the Arbitration Court decreed an advance in wages. WHICH FAILED?

“Even if the report from Australia is correct,” said Mr. Allum, “we do not know yet if it is the principle or the administration of it that has failed over there.” In the course of many visits to Australia he had noticed that confectionery and footwear, representing commodities much concerned in arguments over protection in New Zealand, were both distinctly cheaper in Australia. Protection had not had the effect of making them dearer than, or even as costly as, they were on the New Zealand market-

“Protection is necessary to give our manufacturers a chance to get on their feet. In the past it has been noticed that the announcement of a coming attempt to start a new industry in New Zealand has always been followed by a price-cutting campaign by overseas competitors in that line, so that frequently they have managed to swamp their new rival. British manufacturers have not been the least offenders in that respect, and it has yet to be shown that British manufacturers do not take advantage of New Zealand’s sympathetic tariff by playing their prices up as near as possible to the figure at which their foreign competitors can sell.” LABOUR’S ATTITUDE

Touching labour’s attitude on the question, particularly as referred to in the Australian Tariff Board’s report, Mr. Allum, who said the report had come as a great surprise to local Protectionists, said that he knew of no instance, in New Zealand, where labour had endeavoured to take advantage of protection in any industry. The uniformity of wages in different classes of work would make any such effort fruitless from the start.