IMPORTERS PROTEST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 December 1938, Page 3

IMPORTERS PROTEST

TRADE OF THE DOMINION DISORGANISED

NO MACHINERY TO OBTAIN PERMITS.

DEMAND FOR EARLY ACTION BY GOVERNMENT.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, December 12.

The new import regulations were under fire at a special meeting of the importers’ section of the Canterbruy phamber of Commerce today, when the following resolution, a copy of which has been telegraphed to the Minister of Customs (Mr Nash) was carried:—

“That whereas the Prime Minister has contended that the new import regulations are part of a well-thought-out scheme of insulation, Canterbury importers protest that, although the regulations have been in force since December 5, there is still no machinery to obtain permits to import and the trade of the country is being impeded in a manner unprecedented, not even excluding the period immediately after the outbreak of the Great War. The scheme appears to have been hastily conceived, without regard to the intricate details of the country’s business and the present position can only be described as chaotic in every direction. At the moment trade is held up and disorganised. Many commodities have to be bought from day to day by cable, to enable New -Zealand to buy at the lowest prices and to carry on the manufacturing industries of the Dominion. At the present time the whole of this delicate machinery and the skill which operates it are at a standstill. Canterbury importers call upon the Government to clarify every detail at once and to see that no further hindrance is imposed on the country’s trade.” The meeting decided to send delegates to the meeting of the Importers’ Federation to be held in Wellington tomorrow. It decided that delegates should place before the federation the urgent necessity for a classification of imports by the Government into two classes—those to be prohibited and those to be the subject of licence, with a balance to be imported without licences. There will also be a request that all orders placed before December 5 should be permitted to land without a licence, in view of shipping space being insufficient to meet demands.