DUMPING DUTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 23 June 1923, Page 7

DUMPING DUTY.

ON SOUTH AFRICAN MAIZE. WHY IT IS IMPOSED. (Received 11.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. A meeting of merchants passed a resolution requesting the Prime Minister to cancel dumping duty on maize, or exempt contracts already made. The Graziers' Association sent a protest against the duty to Mr. A. Chapman, Minister of Customs, as it would be prejudicial to stockowners, the drought not being sufficiently broken to obviate the necessity for hand-feeding. Jlr. Chapman, replying, said that Australian farmers had been placed at a disadvantage owing to competition by South African maize grown by black labour. In consequence of freight reduction it cost less to ship maize from South Africa to Australia than to bring local maize to the market. 'When relaxing the law during the height of the drought he warned intending importers that any orders placed in South Africa ■would be at their own risk, especially ■when the operations were of a speculative character. At the time South African maize was sold locally at fi/6 to 7/ a bushel, now it was 5/. The Tariff Board advised that South African maize was being dumped to the extent of threepence a bushel, hence the necesEitv for the dumping duty.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)