The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1919 IMPORTANT INDUSTRIAL EVIDENCE.

Taihape Daily Times, 20 February 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1919 IMPORTANT INDUSTRIAL EVIDENCE.

(With wHicb i» incorporated The f«ih»pe Port tad Wale»nao Newi).

Evidence now being collected by the Industries Committee that is holding sessions in various parts of the Dominion is interesting land in many cases illuminating and fraught with considerable import to this country's industries, also to what should be this country's industries. The evidence is largely what one would expect in this short lived age of profiteering. Most of those who appear before the Committee rare there-to urge that customs duties or increased duties be imposed upon the class of goods they manufacture, and in most cases thbse witnesses tell the Committee that the amount of duty asked for will not affect the selling prices. Perhaps it would not, but the invariable experience over a very long list of years and duties imposed is directly opposed to their statement. The temptation has proved too great for the frailty of human nature involved in New Zealand protected industries, and the public estimate of the men has gone down as the prices of their products have soared away up. One man asks for a duty on 'jnporß;d rubber so that' New Zealand rubber works can compete with foreign rubber goods. A firm that manufacturers weighing scale_s modestly requests that the Committee will recommend an increase of the duty already levied in the past and that the Government entirely prohibit the use in New Zealand of all types of spring balances. A printers' ink maker wants a duty on imported printing ink; he said a

tariff on ink would not raise prices, but it would enable the present prices to hi maintained. It is pitiable- to see now manufacturers, and others cling to prices which are purely the result of opportunity to exploit given by the war. Three eases only are mentioned but those three are fairly representative of several others all of whom are eager for what they term a protective duty or the increase of an already fmposod duty. They all want the present high prices now being charged to continue, and to achieve this they desire to make thi> poor old masses of the people pay ao-ain. All and sundry are anxious to exploit the masses while there is a Government that will legalise any form of profiteering one likes to suggest, while the National Coalition evil has Members of the House tied down and gagged. These importunista for an increase of such indirect taxation are doomed to disappointment, because the present Government will not be given the slightest chance to revise the present customs tariff, nor in any way alter the present incidence of taxation. That important duty will bn relegated" to quite an-

other set of men after a general election has been held. There is, therefore, no present or future hope for the appealers for. ian increase of any form of indirect taxation. One man urged that tlio Government form an Invention Board to protect patented inventions, but what taxpayer is there in this little country who

does not feel • a cold shiver at the very mention of the word Board? Boards anj defined by the general taxpayer as bodies of men selected to act tas buffers between the people and a supine Government while tho masses are subjected to a long and severe process of exploitation. They involve the maximum cost for the irreducible minimum of righteous results to the country, but that is not a consideration so long as they act as scapegoats, bearing away the heinous procedure of tne men to whom they owie thoir existence. Taxpayers will rather favour a considerable reduction of Boards than add to those already

drawing hug,> sums from the public \ exchequer. This class of information the Industries Committee is eliciting | is utterly valueless; it merely indicates the widespread avarice of New Zealand manufacturers which ■will rather be- curbed than pandered to in the future. On the other hand much evidence has been taken of a | very valuable nature. The difference •between the evidence given by workers and manufacturers is marvellously significant, one is wholly for self, the other wholly for the community. Representatives of the Freezing Works and Allied Trades Industrial Union appeared before the Committee, urged and demonstrated that the wool-scouring • industry could b 3 made one of the most important in the Dominion, and capable of giving employment to hundreds of returned soldiers. A Mr. Curvis told the Committee it had been the custom to export wool unseoured, whatever its condition or quality. He pointed ! out that during the past five years an average of : 428,557 bales j of greasy wool per annum had been exported as against 49,503 bales of scoured wool, and he estimated that another 100,000 bales were suitable for scouring in the Dominion. The saving of freight alone on the 150,000 bales by the extraction of 40 per cent of its weight in grease and dirt would be £200,000. It seems almost unbelievable that wool growers pay such a huge sum year after year that might be retained in the Dominion if the Government would legislate in the direction of providing a little improved machinery.. Another fact adduced was that a much larger proportion of wool being scoured here would prevent a recuring serious loss by deterioration. I Some classes of wool cannot be readi ily disposed of; it is necessary to hold such wool for considerable periods, and while it is awaiting a market grit in it materially affects its quality, whereas scouring would obviate such a loss. F. C. Ellis,, secretary of the Freezing Works Union, told the Industries Committee that the wool drying industry, if extended, could absorb a large number of men, including returned soldiers. Very little special training was required, except in the case of wool-sorters, who could be trained.-elsewhere. Here is found a union of ■ workers giving highly important, valuable evidence in support of an industry that will absorb hundreds of returned soldiers, and save the country £200,000 every year in freight on wool a'one, and i further, instead of the labour in countries to which the wool is exported receiving the costs of scouring, it will be retained for distribuI tion amongst New Zealand workers, J thereby increasing their spending power, which is a benefit to all business. It would have been a matter for intense surprise had not the Chairman of the Industries Committee made immediate use of the giver of such testimony by requesting him to formulate and draw out a scheme to submit to the Committee, stating the best manner in which? the Govj eminent could give the desired assistance. The Freezing Works and i allied Trades Union have shown how an immensely lucrative industry can be established on raw material that is discarded and costs nothing. All the expenditure required is for machinery and labour; no buying staff or selling staff to maintain and pay, just scour the wool and receive payment accordingly, and in tbo process hundreds of New Zealand workers are employed and £200,000 is saved annually in freight on dirt and grease There is another aspect though, perhaps not so important, which is worthy of some consideration, and that is the fact that New Zealand pays a considerable proportion of the £200.000 in freighting wool grease to other countries and then buys it back under the name of lanoline at a shilling and cighteenpenco a small tube. German manufacturers in the past have made millions out of that which has cost New Zealanders at least £IOO,OOO a year to send out of the country, and for which they got absolutely no return, except that they pay one shilling a tube for. If the Workers' Union is the means" of helping the Industries Committee to establish such an industry on the j lines of the evidence given, the Comj mitte will have been worth while.