THE TARIFF PROPOSALS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8473, 26 June 1907, Page 5

THE TARIFF PROPOSALS.

"The chief feature of the session wiil not be the Land Bill," confidently declared a member of the House of Representatives, to a Post reporter yesterday, "but the tariff proposals of the Government. There is going to be a big reduction in taxation on what are generally known as the necessaries of life, but apart from that the issue of Town v. Country will be raised, and a bitter fight will ensue." "Farmers," he went on to say, "are all freetraders, so long as the principle is made to apply only to the free importation of agricultural implements, but as soon as you propose to place a duty on any single thing which they produce they are protectionists. The debates on the land proposals of the Government wjll be nothing compared with the wrangle that will take pl&ce over the tariff proposals, but, whatever else happens, you may be sure that the duties on many articles in common use will be considerably reduced. As to the consequent reduction in revenue a good deal of that will be made up by increased consumption, and as for the balance — well, we have had big surpluses for many years, and some of the money can be well applied to relieving the general public."

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