A LOCAL INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 134, 8 June 1910, Page 8

A LOCAL INDUSTRY.

SADDLERS ASK PREFERENCE.

A deputation from the Saddlers' Union was this morning introduced to Si? Joseph Ward by Mr C. H. Poole, .M.P. The deputation included Messrs Wiseman, Hawkins, Tilley and Mclntosh.

Mr Poole said the deputation represented »both the employers and the employees,vand their object was to ask the Government, all things being equal, to give the claims of local industry fair ■consideration when calling for tenders for. saddlery and other leather gear required in connection with the equipment of the defence forces under the new territorial scheme.

Mr Wiseman spoke in favour of full consideration being given 'local industry in the equipment of the defence forces of the Dominion. Under the existing law, saddlery made outside New Zealand could be introduced for military purposes payment of duty. He' urged that preference should at all times' Be given to local manufactures.

The Prime Minister, in reply, said he could assure the deputation that the local article 'would always receive preference, and he could aJso assure them that the exemptory clause of the Act had never been applied in regard to the duty on imported saddlery. Ho would sea that the local manufactures received preference in regard to the equipment of the new "territorial forces.