LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 263, 20 August 1930, Page 6

LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

EFFECTS OF THE NEW TARIFF. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, August 19. Interesting comments on the new Customs tariff, and the importance of supporting local industry, were made by Mr W. H. Barber, chairman of the Wellington Woollen Manufacturing Company, at the annual meeting toa"After a lapse of 22 years, Parliament has advanced the tariff on two items of interest to us—hosiery and apparel," said Mr Barber. ' I am sorry it was not done through a desire to develop industry, but because fortuitous happenings seem to have made it imperative to obtain further .revenue for the State. The 2J per cent, increase with surtax (less primage duty removed) will be about 6* per cent. This help we are of course pleased to get, but we are afraid its advantage will be completely destroyed by the removal of the 5 per cent allowance on capital value ot plant and buildings, with an extra 10 per cent put on to income-tax. To meet loss oi this allowable deduction and added income-tax will .require an increased turnover of, say, £20,000, at a net profit of 8 per cent. The power taken by the Government by special provision in the Customs Amendment Bill enabling the Minister of Customs to remit new duties should a manufacturer raise prices in that behalf, does not trouble us, as our endeavour is to secure a larger output which obviously gives reduced production costs, and therefore lower selling prices. It is to be regretted that, in altering the tantt, the request of clothing employees put before the Government last session, for a specific impost on low, shoddy clothing was not granted. The ad valorem duty on these cheap lines is negligible, having no deterrent effect. That class of clothing is unprofitable to the consumer, and to the country, as it has no pure wool content, and so competes unfairly with all all-woo "oods It is difficult to understand why so many of New Zealand's people prefer to support overseas factories, and not even British, when it is vital to the well-being of Great Briitf.ni, this countrv, and therefore to themselves individually, that industries should be built up to find work for those already here, and for the large population the Dominion is destined to carry. , , ~ c "New Zealand has the reputation ot bein<>- a prosperous country, and so it still would be if the bulk of the money for exports were applied to the employment of our own people, instead ot being used to support other countries. Our farming friends should remembmthat every manufacturing industry established" in New Zealand represents a definite new market for primary products."