INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 54, 2 July 1887, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.

Mk Benjamin Blakey, ships' block-maker, of Albert-street, has forwarded some fine specimens of his workmanshi to the Exhibition. This industry, despite the foreign competition and tho unfair manner in which the tariff operates against local manufac turers, has been established in this city for upwards of 20 years,and while the shipbuild ing trade was prosperous the local makers did very-well.l Now, with the stagnation in trade, and : from tho fact that ship chandlers in many instances prefer to sell tho imported article, the block-making industry is at a low ebb. Tlio shells of the blocks are made from a very excellent New Zealand wood called mangaio, but the sheaves are manufactured from an imported wood-lignum-vita.—no local wood having yet been found sufficiently .tough for the purpose. As an instance of tho monstrous idiocy which at one time was made manifest in.,the construction of the tariff, tho manufactured blocks were admitted free, while the wood for making sheaves was dutiable. After an arduous struggle on the part of the blockmakers, the Government some six or seven years ago admitted the raw material free, but tip to the. present have .imposed no tax on the imported article.' The local goods are admitted to be quite as good as the imported, and yet the best price tho'local makers can get from the retailers is 40 per cent, less than the retail selling price of the foreign blocks. Mr Blakey thinks, that a. duty might fairly be imposed on imported blocks which not only would revive an almost crippled industry, but would so expand it as to give employment to a I large number of hands. Auckland is, we understand, the only town in tho colony where blocks are made ; so that a.protective duty in this connection would immediately be a great local benefit. "•''" •' .... •

I The blocks shown by Mr Blakey at tho Exhibition are of almost every known pattern, and are well worthy of Inspection. '