Advantages of Tariff Board Outlined

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 613, 15 March 1929, Page 8

Advantages of Tariff Board Outlined

MANUFACTURERS’ PLAN POWERS OF INVESTIGATION (From Our Resident Rr porter} WELLINGTON, Thursday. The advantages of the Tariff Board asked for by manufacturers have been set out by them in an appeal to members of Parliament. Originally the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association that the hoard should consist of five member* a Government appointee, who presumably would be from the Department of | Customs, and w ould bo chairman; an I appointee by farmers, a. - p-1 pointee: an appointee of the New- Zoa- ! land Manufacturers’ Federation, and | an appointee of the British importers, i Sittings w ere to be held in any part of New Zealand, three members to form a Quorum, and the board’s decision to be ruled by the majority. Tho duties of the beard, which is | now thought should be more upon Australian lines, would be to classify | goods under tariff items, the deter- ; minations of the value, of the goods | for duty purposes, giving interpreta- | tions of any disputes concerning the | interpretation of the tariff and the classification of articles, considering j applications for the adjustment of duties in either direction, consideration j of the bounty system, and the effect of I existing bounties, investigation of proposals* for the application of the BritI ish. preferential tariff to any part of i tho British Dominions, investigation of ! complaints that manufacturer/} were taking unfair advantage of the tariff i protection by charging unnecessarily high prices or acting in restraint of trade, the general effect of the Customs I tariff and the excise tariff, and the fiscal and industrial effects of the 1 Customs laws. It is also considered that the board could investigate the incidence of the rates of duty on raw- materials, on finished and partly-finished products and other matters affecting the encouragement of primary or secondary industries in relation to the tariff. plied are all available for all who car© to investigate for themselves. The trouble that the archdeacon refers to arises at times, times few and far between, when, a district officer being miles —hundreds it may be, for districts are enormous—away from a given centre, the indolent male natives dodge their duty to the headmen, and send out women and children to do their work (Wo have known such conduct nearer home.) _JThe moment this is known it is stopped, the offender is arrested, tried, and, if found guilty, punished. Till this year—and here w© touch upon another allegation—the only punishment was a fine. This the offender smilingly paid out of the proceeds of the women’s and children’s labour. To protect these weaker ones, the imprisonment the archdeacon cries out upon was enacted. It wa.s not “gaoling”—it is the putting in of a period of useful work in a “detention camp,” so that 4;he lazy male native no longer finds it profitable to exploit his womenkind and his little ones. In the matter of the bushfelling. In certain districts the natives suffer from sleeping sickness. The carrier of that disease is the tsetse fly, and to destroy this the felling of bush is necessary. Anyone acquainted with the tropics knows the folly of a six labour a month in such a matter. The circumstances were explained to the headmen and native workers, and it was agreed to take several sixday periods in one, being free for the corresponding number of months afterwards, and get the job done. When the district officer was away on other business, one of tho supervisor’s subordinates set the natives under him on piecework, itself an offence against th© law, and flogged several, as stated by the archbishop, for not completing the task set. The moment this was known, the arrangements were terminated, the subordinate arrested, tried, convicted, and punished. It will be seen that the archdeacon deals in incomplete statements even where his statements are so far accurate. If% the matter of the extension of powers to junior officers, he states what is not true. There has been no extension whatever.

I have given considerable attention to the native administration in Kenya, and have a high admiration both for the ideals of the present commissioner, who took charge some seven years ago, and for what has been accomplished under his administration. In all frankness, I consider the progress achieved in certain districts—for tho nature of the natives differs in different regions of this enormous territory, and some are very backward still • —astounding. The establishment of native councils (of headmen and elected popular representatives), and native tribunals, has had surprisingly good results. One finds these councils voting large sums of money for the establishment and upkeep of schools, of medical services, of veterinary sd**vices—a fact which heavily discounts the suggestion of excessively low wages. The latest advance is a scheme for the agricultural education of the native, a very thorough piece of w-ork with several specially interesting points in it, such as the question of adequate payment for native agricultural instructors when these are available, so that the natives shall acquire a proper respect for agricultural pursuits, and not despise them, as they are inclined to do, and rush after crafts and clerkships. Under the “dual policy,” which encourages natives to work, plant, etc., in their own reserves, and also encourages those who wish—there is no compulsion—to work for wages outside, a pleasing expansion of both native exports and native labour has taken place. D. W. M. BURN, President N.Z. and India League.