GAS COOKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1921, Page 4

GAS COOKERS.

IMPORTS NOW ALLOWED. THE RESTRICTION REMOVED, By Telegraph— Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The following communication has beei received from the Hon. W. Downie Stew< art (Minister of Customs):— “It has now been decided to revok< the order-in-couneil relating to gai cookers, as the reason for its continuance has ceased to exist. When the order-in-eouncil was passed the objeci was to give us time to ma£e enquiries in England a« to whether there was anj explanation of apparent cases of dumping. Our cable reply from England ha£ now been received and it is not entirely satisfactory, but it indicates that instances of dumping that were under review may be open to explanation oi were isolated cases. The curious thing is that in spite of all the criticism aim-, ed at the order-in-council whenever I have met importers of gas cookers they have expressed themselves as satisfied that our action was reasonable and justified. No one has been injured by the order-in-council and the most that has happened is the temporary suspension of some permits until advice could be obtained by cable. “The order-in-counci! was purely a precautionary measure to enable us to control the situation and had we stopped to make full enquiries before issuing the order-in-council the whole object in view might have been defeated by largo dumping contracts being made while we were still investigating. The chief criticism ha« been on the broad ground that the use of an order-in-council for such a purpose is an arbitrary exercise of authority by the Executive. My reply to that is that as we have no antidumping legislation we had to do the best we could without it. Moreover, if the new tariff legislation is to be adapted to suit modern conditions I think it will have to confer more discretionary powers than past legislation ha« done. If Parliament refuses such powers, then we must go on with a cast iron tariff incapable of adaptation to emergencies.”