BRITISH PREFERENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 80, 2 April 1908, Page 6

BRITISH PREFERENCE.

STATEMENT BY MINISTER FOR CUSTOMS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Replying to criticism of the preferential tariff the Hon. J. A. Millar (Minister for Customs) said:—"lt is perfectly true that some of the lines on which the preferential tariff is levied are not made in Great Britain, and will not be made there, but in many of these cases the articles which are not made in Great Britain enter into competition with those that are made there, and that was the reason of putting on the preferential tariff. We anticipate an increased importation of British-made goods, because of the effect of the preferential tariff, which, together with the Patents Act, passed in Great Britain, will, in my opinion, force into the Old Country a good deal of the trade which was formerly done with the Continent. The statement by the man who says that a painter's brush, which formerly sold at 5/6, will now cost S/6, is not worth answering. "tinder the new tariff there is one point which I shall watch very carefully," said the Minister, "and that is whether the amount charged to foreign-made goods under the preferential tariff is going to be added to the cost of British or Canadian-made goods. The intention of the Act was not that manufacturers, who have been competing at a very narrow margin of profit with foreign manufacturers, should put the whole of '.the preference in their own pockets, but to benefit the consumers as well, and I shall carefully watch the price lists of those firms which have been doing business in New Zealand in competition with foreign manufacturers prior to the coming into operation of the new Act. If I find that the whole of the resultant profit is being put into the pockets of the manufacturers, and that the New Zealand public are gaining no portion of the benefits intended by the tariff, I shall again bring the matter under the review of my colleagues. It may be, on the other hand, that the results of the preferential tariff will be so beneficial as to justify the Government in asking Parliament to give a still further measure of preference to Great Britain, but, of course, that will depend entirely on the experience of the next two or three years.'-'