EFFECTS OF TARIFFS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1080, 18 September 1930, Page 7

EFFECTS OF TARIFFS

THEIR EARLY IMPORTANCE REVENUE TO PROTECTION When the earliest tariffs were instituted in New Zealand, they proved not only a source of revenue, but also a protection duty in a mild way, according to Mr. F. M. Price, in a lecture on “The Effects of Tariff on New Zealand Secondary Industries,” given before the Auckland branch of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand, last evening. Mr. W 11. Cocker presided over the meeting. The lecturer reviewed in detail the development of tariffs and the growth of industry. He considered that, on the whole, protection had combined with arbitration to improve the wages and status of the workmen of New Zealand. Other causes, such as factory legislation and the growling prosperity of a young country, had also assisted The first of the tariff Acts, passed in 1841, gave a measure of preference for, by it foreign liquors and spirits were charged ss, whereas the British products had to pay only 4s. The Customs tariff was the only assured source of revenue for the Government for many years. In 1873, Customs and excise duties amounted to more than £3 a head of population. After 10 years of the Vogel policy, this source was still furnishing three-quarters of the income of the State. In 1882, it yielded £1,276.000 out of a total revenut from taxation of £1,717,000. A gradual but nevertheless distinct change from a revenue to a protectionist policy took place during the decade from 2 880 to 1890. The subject was gradually made to be a major issue in the House, and in 1881 a straight-out free-trade or protectionist debate engaged the Parliamentarians. The measure introduced in that year by Major (afterward Sir Harry) Atkinson was described by free-traders as the thin edge of the wedge, but it was the Act of ISBB which finally decided the question.